Howlin' For You
by Andy-Loves-FanFiction
Summary: Elijah finally cut the cord with his siblings and plots his revenge on Klaus with the help of Martin witches. But what happens when he stumbles upon somebody who so vividly brings back memories from the past that he would rather forget? Elijah/OC story that starts with the beginning of the Season 2 of The Vampire Diaries, then continues along with the storyline of The Originals
1. Chapter 1 - The Beginning

**CHAPTER 1 – THE BEGINNING**

_It's been twenty years since Elijah's family sailed across the great ocean to start a new life away from the plague that claimed his eldest sister Freya. He and his older brother Finn were sparred and they were blessed with four more siblings – Niklaus, Kol, Rebekah and Henrik. Their new neighbors, the old Norwegian tribe who ventured overseas some ten years before them, welcomed them with open hearts and embraced them as their own. His family was close friends with the chieftain Raoul's family. His wife Ylva was a witch almost as powerful as Esther and their three sons – Viggo, Brynjar, Hagen – and their only daughter Brenna were the closest friends to Mikaelson children. They spent many years playing together, learning to hunt together and shared their joys and grieves together. _

_They knew about the Ragvaldsson family supernatural curse of turning into wolves on the full moon and learned to respect it, living in peace and harmony for almost two decades. Unfortunately, that was about to change soon._

_Elijah drew his bow, taking a deep breath and steadying himself, before releasing the arrow and hitting a deer fifty feet away with deadly certainty. He was pleased with himself; his family will eat well tonight._

_ "Did Odin himself bless your arrows? I swear I have never seen you miss your target, not even when we were children," he heard Brenna's voice teasing behind him, sending shivers down his spine. She was as exquisite beauty with dark auburn hair, hazelnut eyes and angelic face that would melt your heart. She was also fierce and could wield a blade and ride a horse as skillfully as any man in the village. Every man wanted to be her suitor but she only had eyes for one. Not that he would notice her affections. He was far too humble for that and always dismissed them as a result of their long lasting friendship. That didn't stop him from wanting more though. _

_ "You dare to tease me about my hunting skills seeming magical. Not one day ago I saw you hit boar with your spear from the same distance," Elijah countered making her send a playfully smug smirk his way._

_ "Says the one whose stallion is named after Odin's horse," Brenna teased right back. "We should head back to the camp," she said starting towards her mare Tyra. He followed suit after her, retrieving his prey and tying it to Sleipnir. Elijah, Klaus, Brenna and her brothers were currently out on the hunt preparing for the celebration of Winternights that signaled the beginning of the winter season. _

_ Upon the next day they arrived back to the village and parted their ways in order to prepare for the night's festivities. Elijah entered his family home and was instantly greeted by Rebekah hugging him tightly._

_ "Have you heard the great news brother?" she toned cheerfully. "Ansel's daughter – Sigrid – she gave birth to a beautiful healthy boy. Even more reason to celebrate and dance through the night!"_

_ That was good news indeed. Ansel was chieftain Raoul's younger brother and the whole family would be therefore present for the entire duration of festivities. More time to spend with Brenna._

_ "So, dear brother," Rebekah said snapping Elijah out of his thoughts. "Is this the night when you finally muster up enough courage to express your feelings towards Brenna?"_

_ "What are you talking about Bekah?" Elijah stammered utterly surprised by this question._

_ "Oh please, Elijah, even the blind could see you are in love with that girl," Rebekah chided. "And I can tell the feelings are mutual. I think the whole village knows it but you two. Well I am off to Brenna's house to prepare for the celebration. I will see you later." She said with a wicked grin plastered on her face._

_ The festivities were in a full swing, the wine and mead flowing, people in masks dancing and singing aloud with the music. It was splendid. It was Elijah's favorite time of the year but sadly, he found himself not enjoying it very much this time around. Maybe it was because his nerves got the best of him as he was trying to figure out the best way to approach Brenna or maybe it was because he was forced to endure watching her dance with every man in the village. It was a tradition for every man of age to dance with chieftain' daughter at great festivals such as this one, and by rights he should be standing in line waiting for his turn, but instead he decided to sulk in the shadows and drown his anguish in mead. _

_He felt the slightest consolation upon observing that she didn't seem to be enjoying herself very much either. She looked stunning that night. Her flaming hair braided in intricate patterns and adorned with feathers and jewelry and her dress a deep midnight blue shade that beautifully enhanced her pale skin and brown eyes._

_Lost in his thoughts he didn't notice she had disappeared from the dance floor. He started frantically looking for her with his eyes but couldn't find her anywhere. He was beginning to panic, thinking she sneaked away with one of her many suitors, and cursing Rebekah for playing such a cruel trick on him, making him believe he had a chance with Brenna. Then he felt her delicate palms cover his eyes, making him tense momentarily, and her voice murmuring in his ear: "And what pray tell are you doing here, alone, sulking in the shadows?"_

_There it was again, that unrelenting shiver whenever she was near him. He couldn't help himself but chuckle under his breath._

"_Enjoying the festivities from afar seeing as you were preoccupied," he teased right back grabbing her palms gently and spinning her around, still not releasing her hands from his. It was time to come clean. Now or never._

"_And here I was, waiting the entire night for you to come and dance with me before my feet would fall off," Brenna said with bated breath, looking down on their entwined hands._

"_If I knew you desired so to dance with me, I would be the first one in line," he murmured, releasing her hands from his, only to place them on her cheeks, stroking lightly with his thumbs. _

_She looked up at him, her eyes sparkling with all the unspoken feelings, beautiful smile gracing her lips: "It seems we will need to work on communi—"she started but was cut off by Elijah grabbing her and kissing her passionately. She tensed momentarily but soon melted into the kiss twining her arms around his neck. When they finally tore apart, breathing heavily, Brenna twirled around smiling happily: "Now can I have my dance?"_

"_Only if I will be the one to dance with you for the rest of the night," Elijah countered._

"_I would not have it any other way," she toned and took his hand leading him from the shadows back to the dance floor. _

_That night, to both Elijah' and Brenna's surprise, her father announced their engagement that would unify Rangvaldsson and Mikaelson families as one. The festivities continued throughout the entire night and two more days. _

_After that, it was time for people from the village to seek the shelter of caverns while Ragvaldsson men howled under the light of the full moon. Elijah spent that night happily cuddled up with Brenna by his side, planning their future together with vigorous help from Rebekah, Esther and Brenna's mother. He couldn't help but notice that Niklaus and Henrik were nowhere to be seen which concerned him a great deal. His bad feeling proved to be right the next morning when he heard Niklaus screaming for his mother. He rushed over there only to see his youngest brother torn apart. Brenna arrived at the scene a moment later and hugged crying Rebekah tight starring in horror at Niklaus who crumpled on the ground next to his brother's body, sobbing "the wolves… I'm sorry… I'm so sorry."_

"_We must save him," Esther pleaded with Ayana. "Please, there must be a way!"_

"_The spirits will not give us away, Esther," Ayana retorted disheartened. "Your boy is gone."_

_That was it. Henrik was dead and Elijah knew that as soon as Mikael found out, the peaceful life between the two families was gone. His heart filled with sorrow for his youngest brother and fear at the thought that this might ruin his and Brenna's future together. That however didn't happen. The relationships with Ragvaldsson family were a little tense and it seemed that his parents were dealing with the loss of another child on their own terms. He had no idea of their plans to turn all their remaining children into monsters. Granted, they were trying to figure out the way to protect them from the wolves, but what they did has crippled him and his siblings for centuries. _

_Once they turned into vampires, everything started going to hell. Other villagers didn't exactly know what they were, but they shunned them out. Even Ragvaldssons turned their backs on them, well except Brenna, but she didn't have a say in the matter. Her father cancelled their engagement and forbade her from seeing Elijah ever again. _

_It'd been almost a month before they finally managed to sneak out to see each other again and talk. He was standing in the darkened alley behind her house, waiting for her. At last, she came out, wearing her heavy winter fur over her nightgown._

"_Elijah," she whispered caressing his cheek lightly. "I know I'm late, but I couldn't get out earlier."_

"_It's alright my love," he pressed his hand against her hand and kissed her palm gently. "You're here, that's all that matters."_

"_My mother… she says you're not the same people anymore… she says you are all dangerous," she whispered staring down at her bare feet. "But I don't believe that. I look at you and I still see the man I love and want to spend my life with."_

_At her words, he let out a breath he wasn't aware of holding, relieved that her feelings towards him haven't changed. He grabbed both her hands and staring into her eyes intently, he said: "I would never dream of hurting you Brenna. You are my destiny."_

"_I know that my love," she smiled a little sadly. "But my father wants me to marry Egil, the son of a chieftain from the North village. What are we going to do?"_

"_Let's run away together," Elijah blurted out in a rush. He'd been thinking about it constantly ever since their engagement was canceled. "Let's run far and find a new home for both of us where we can start over."_

"_Let's do it my love," Brenna smiled, happy tears streaming down her beautiful face. Elijah hugged her firmly but cautiously, aware now of his increased strength. "Tonight's a full moon. Tomorrow, my family, they'll all be weak and distracted. I'm sure I'll manage to slip out. Meet me in the caverns tomorrow night and we'll go."_

"_I'll be there," he whispered nervously. "I love you Brenna."_

"_As I love you," she murmured back, giving him a quick passionate kiss and ran back to the house. Elijah was torn. He was certain Brenna was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, but he felt oddly guilty for abandoning his family. He always put his family first and it felt unnatural not to do so anymore. But it was time to finally put his happiness before the others and Brenna was his happiness. _

_The night after their secret rendes-vous, he was waiting in the caverns for Brenna to come, but she wasn't there. He waited for hours and he finally gave up at the dawn thinking she changed her mind, or maybe she couldn't sneak out. He climbed out of the caverns and hurried back to the village to find out what got her held up when he noticed smoke rising from where her house was. He raced over there and found only ashy remains of her house. In front of it, impaled on stakes was Raoul Ragvaldsson, his brother Ansel, his wife, their three sons and… Brenna… Her once beautiful hazel eyes staring into the sky, lifeless and hollow. He removed her body from the stake and slumped to the ground with her in his arms, screaming his throat raw and sobbing hysterically. He had no idea how long he'd been like that but it must've been hours before Niklaus and Rebekah found him, holding onto Brenna's rigid body for dear life. They finally told him what happened. Told him that Niklaus was a part werewolf and last night he turned for the first time and killed six villagers, that Mikael found out and realized Niklaus isn't his son and that Esther had been unfaithful. He made her confess who Niklaus' true father was and then killed him and his entire family in a fit of rage. He also killed Esther, ripping her heart out for breaking his. Then he took off and never came back._

Elijah woke up with a start from his recurring nightmare in which he relived his happiest and worst moments of his human life. Thousand years he's been alive and those memories were as vivid as if it all happened yesterday. He's been roaming the Earth, following his siblings, cleaning up their mess, trying to forget the woman he once felt for so strongly but he was about to be reminded soon.


	2. Chapter 2 - The Return

**CHAPTER 2 – THE RETURN**

Rhiannon was sitting on the porch swing of a Gilbert house for almost two hours, absentmindedly looking at her pick-up truck loaded with all her possessions and parked on the driveway, waiting for her old friend Elena to come back. It seemed like she picked a hell of a time to move back to her birth place that was in a wake of a tragedy. The mayor Lockwood just died and Elena's uncle was attacked in their house by some psycho and was in a hospital, as well as Caroline who got into a car accident. Things have certainly changed since she moved away eight years ago, and she was trying hard not to take it as a sign she made the wrong decision ditching her parents on their latest adventure digging up some old forgotten settlement in forests of New Zealand.

She was silently contemplating the past two weeks of her life, during which she helped her parents to pack up and sell their house in Seattle, drove them to the airport and then took one hell of a road trip throughout the states to end up here. She was more than capable of looking after herself seeing as her parents spent more time travelling around the States concerned with their research than home with their only daughter. She argued with them a lot, trying to convince them to let her stay in the States. She finally managed to get her way under one condition – that she would move in with their old family friends in Mystic Falls, finish high school here and then they would join her here after their two-year contract in New Zealand ended. So here she was, sitting on the porch swing and about to dial Elena's cell for the third time in the past two hours when a red mini cooper parked in front of the house letting out Jenna and little Gilbert, as she liked to call him, who wasn't so little anymore.

"Hey Rhiannon! Welcome!" Jenna hollered. "I'm so sorry to have kept you waiting like that but these past few days were absolutely crazy."

"Don't worry about it," Rhiannon said sheepishly. "So where's Elena?"

"Oh, she kinda had to stay behind," Jeremy said.

"Boyfriend drama," Jenna added. "But she'll be home soon."

"Hey, it's good to see you again Rhiannon," little Gilbert said and went straight for a hug.

"It's great to see you too Jer," she retorted.

"C'mon, let's get you settled," Jenna said unlocking the front door, giving her a spare set of keys.

"Alright, Jeremy, let's put those muscles to a good use," Rhiannon teased and started towards her car.

All her stuff was moved in her room within an hour, during which Elena accompanied by her boyfriend Stefan, who was kind enough to pitch in and help them with the rest of boxes. They were currently munching on pizza Elena thoughtfully ordered on her way home and reconnecting.

"So how's Caroline doing?" Rhiannon asked. "I have to drop by the hospital tomorrow and say hi. Maybe you and Bonnie could join me and we can all go for lunch after that."

"That sounds lovely, but Bonnie and I are in charge of the carnival preparations and Caroline would have our heads if everything wasn't perfect," Elena joked.

"Yeah, I'm not surprised; I still vividly remember her organizing our Sunday tea parties," she joked along.

"You're kidding!" Stefan laughed.

"I wish," Rhiannon retorted. "Well can I help you with the carnival then? I'm sure you can use an extra pair of hands, am I right?"

"Well yeah, but you just got here. Don't you need some time to settle?" Elena objected.

"Nonsense, the sooner I start participating in things like this, the sooner it'll start feeling like home. Plus, I love stuff like this."

"Okay, that would be great actually," Elena smiled back at her.

"Awesome," Rhiannon smiled back. "I think I'm gonna go back to unpacking my stuff."

She grabbed one last piece of pizza along with a can of Dr. Pepper and ran upstairs to unload her ridiculous amount of clothes into her closet. So far so good. She liked the house. It was almost exactly the way she remembered it. The king-size bed in her new room, the spare guest bedroom, was incredibly comfy and after she was done unpacking and showered, she fell asleep immediately feeling like this new chapter of her life would not be so bad after all.

The following couple of days were pleasantly dull but also fun at the same time. Rhiannon managed to settle, and reconnect with all of her old friends easily enough. She liked hanging out with them, doing the community work and living a normal high school life. She started to notice that they all kinda tend to disappear on a whim. Like today, they were all, except for Caroline, decorating for the masquerade party and all of a sudden, they were all gone. She dismissed it and spent the day sorting masks and setting tables and now she was out shopping for a cocktail dress for the party.

She managed to find the perfect dress – black lace bodycon dress with cap sleeves and boat neckline and bare back. They would go amazing with her nude Louboutin peep-toe heels. Most of the time she was the jeans and dorky comic book T-shirts and converse kind of girl, but when the opportunity to dress up presented itself, the girly girl part of her came out to play and she happily indulged it.

She was walking to her car fishing for the keys in the backpack when somebody grabbed her causing her drop her backpack trying to fight back whoever was trying to choke the wind out of her lungs. She managed to stomp on their foot making them release their grip on her. She started running but the man grabbed her hair and pulled her to the ground. Then she saw him pull out the butterfly knife and she knew she was in trouble but some primal instinct made her fight back. She kicked the guy straight in the nuts. She grabbed the knife and plunged it into the guy's neck. He immediately slumped to the ground making gurgling noises and Rhiannon started running to her car and as she was getting into the driver's seat, all of a sudden she got the most horrible headache she ever experienced. It felt as if her skull was splitting open. Her vision became blurry and her gums were throbbing with pain as well. And then it was over. She took a few deep breaths to calm down, thanking God the street was empty, and drove away.

She got inside crying hysterically but nobody was home. It seemed like that was slowly starting to become a tradition here. She dialed Elena's number.

"Hello?" Elena answered the phone.

"Elena? Where are you?" Rhiannon managed to ask in between sobs.

"I'm at the hospital. Jenna managed to walk onto a knife and stabbed herself in the stomach," Elena blurted out sounding really distressed. "Are… are you okay Rhiannon?"

"No… I… I think I killed somebody Elena," she cried out crying out loud.

"What? What happened?" Elena asked.

"I was walking to my car and some guy jumped me and he… he threw me on the ground and then he pulled out a knife and I fought back and I… I stabbed him and I think he died."

"Oh my god," Elena mumbled. "Just stay inside, we're coming home right now."

"Okay," Rhiannon said and hung up.

Not ten minutes later, Elena burst through the door followed by Jeremy, Stefan and Damon. She hugged Rhiannon tight letting her cry for a while and then made her tell them everything that happened.

"Did he say anything?" Stefan asked with that typical frown of his.

"No," she blurted out. "It's like he was hell-bent on killing me. I didn't see his face, I just ran away. I should call 911."

"Wait, where did this happen?" Damon asked.

"At the parking lot behind the stores. Mine was the only car left there," Rhiannon mumbled shaking.

"I better go and check it out," he said.

"Wait what?" she asked confused. "What're you gonna do about it?"

"Don't worry about that lil' fighter," he said then gave Stefan a pointed look and left without any further explanation.

"Rhiannon," Stefan addressed her with rather serious expression. "Everything's going to be alright. You're not going to remember what happened today," she felt a strange tug somewhere in her head but nothing he was saying made sense. How could she possible forget this?

"All you will remember is that you shopped for the dress, then came back home and went to bed," the moment he finished, the weird pull stopped as well.

"What are you talking about Stefan?" she started a little aggravated. "How can I possible forget what happened tonight?!"

"Wait, is she on vervain?" he asked.

"I don't think so, but I can't know for sure," Elena mumbled completely ignoring Rhiannon who was beginning to be beyond pissed.

"Why would I be on vervain?" she asked, almost yelling at that point. "What the hell is going on here?"

Without any further explanation, Stefan walked up to her, grabbed her wrist and bit down on it so hard, he drew blood.

"What he fuck?!" Rhiannon screamed trying to pry her hand free but he was too strong for her. He let her go as quick as he grabbed her, saying: "She's definitely not on vervain."

"But why doesn't the compulsion work then?" Jeremy asked.

"What compulsion? What are you guys talking about?" Rhiannon asked pressing the towel Elena handed her on her wrist.

"Are you a witch?" Stefan asked.

"A what?" she asked incredulously.

"No, Bonnie would've sensed it by now," Elena retorted.

"Then she must be a werewolf," Stefan said looking at Rhiannon with caution in his eyes.

"What the flying fuck are you people talking about?! Witches?! Werewolves?! Are you trippin' on acid?!" Rhiannon yelled hysterically.

"Rhiannon, please calm down," Elena pleaded. "We'll explain everything in a minute."

"Well somebody already disposed of the body," Damon said making a dramatic entrance into the living room. "Ooops, I thought you would've compelled her to go to bed by now."

"What the hell do you people have with this compulsion?!" she yelled even more.

"The compulsion doesn't work on her," Elena filled him in. "She's not on vervain and she's not a witch either. We think she might be a werewolf."

"Okay, I'm out of here," Rhiannon said but was cut off by Damon grabbing her wrist making her wince.

"I see you already did the taste test," Damon joked earning a very stern look from both Stefan and Elena. "Sit down feisty pants, we need to figure this one out."

"Will somebody please explain to me what the hell is going on here?" she asked sitting, or rather slumping down into the nearest armchair.

"Is it possible that she's a werewolf?" Damon asked Elena.

"I have no idea," Stefan answered. "But even if she was, the compulsion should've worked. You managed to compel Tyler Lockwood before."

"Yeah, but maybe they can't be compelled anymore once they activate the curse," Elena chimed in. "And she just did."

"That has to be it," Stefan murmured, then turned to Rhiannon. "When you killed that man, did anything strange happen to you?"

"What? Killing someone isn't strange enough?!" she bit back.

"Please Rhiannon, just answer him," Elena pleaded.

"It's really important that you think hard," Stefan said pleadingly as well.

"Well… for a moment I thought I was going to pass out, and my head started to hurt so bad I went blind for a second and then it stopped all of a sudden."

"Oh, I know how we're gonna know for sure," Damon said, reaching into the pocket of his leather jacket and smiling triumphantly, he pulled out a dried plant with small yellow flowers: "Wolfsbane."

"Damon," Stefan countered but his older brother cut him off abruptly: "Well how else are gonna find out?! I don't know how about you but I don't feel like waiting until next full moon to know for sure!"

"He's got point Stefan," Elena agreed. "Rhiannon, we just need you to do one last thing. Just take that plant from Damon."

"But after this, you're explaining to me what the hell's going on, you promise?" she asked sternly reaching out for the plant. "I really don't know what that's going to prov—AAUUU, what the fuck?! It burned me!"

"So there you have it," Damon said. "Now what're we gonna do?"

"You and Jeremy will take Rhiannon upstairs and explain everything to her," Elena started. "I need to talk to Stefan."

"It's already healed," Rhiannon murmured in amazement.

"Yep, that's one of the perks of being the supernatural," Damon started wrapping his arm around her shoulders guiding her upstairs. "Let me fill you in on the other parts."


	3. Chapter 3 - The Surprise

**CHAPTER 3 – THE SURPRISE**

When Rhiannon woke up the next morning, her head was pounding from everything that she learned the night before. She still wasn't sure she believed it all but even she had to admit that Damon baring his fangs at her was pretty convincing. There was a knock on the door.

"Hey, are you okay? How're you dealing with everything?" Elena said entering Rhiannon's room.

"Well it was a lot to take in, I tell you that," she murmured rubbing her eyes. "I just don't understand why this Katherine would do this to me. She doesn't even know me."

"I know, but she really is diabolical and Damon killing Mason yesterday made her retaliate by hurting people I care about," Elena explained.

"But how did she know I'm a werewolf? I had no idea until yesterday! And none of my relatives is a werewolf, at least none that I know of."

"I have no idea, but she's old and resourceful, I guess she had somebody spying on us all for months," Elena reasoned. "Or maybe she didn't know and she just wanted to hurt you."

"That's comforting," Rhiannon murmured. "So what happened with you and Stefan last night? Damon said something about an ongoing break-up scene."

"Well, we broke-up. At least until we deal with this whole Katherine thing and I just don't know if we're ever gonna make it. There's just so much about us that will never work."

"I don't know, Elena, you two are really great together and the way he's looking at you… I can tell he really loves you and in the end, love conquers all."

"Thank you for that," Elena said hugging her tightly. "Anyways, we're going to hospital to pick up Jenna."

"Right, I'm so glad she's gonna be okay," Rhiannon said really relieved. "Does she know about any of this?"

"No, and I really want it to stay that way as long as possible," Elena retorted. "Okay, we'll be back soon."

Since apparently nobody was going to go the masquerade, Rhiannon spent the rest of the day cooking her famous parmesan chicken and taking care of Jenna with Elena and Rick. Nobody from the gang of supernaturals, as she named them, showed up that day which made Elena convinced that something was up. Her suspicion proved to be right when Rick was shady about where everybody was.

"I don't like it," Elena whispered to Rhiannon. "There's clearly something going on. Jeremy and Stefan going to the masquerade party? They hate stuff like that."

"Well then we need to go find out what's going on, now don't we?" Rhiannon suggested with a mischievous smile plastered on her face. Five minutes later they were in Elena's car and headed for the Lockwood mansion.

The night got so much more eventful than Rhiannon would ever anticipate. It turned out that the gang was on a crazy assassin mission trying to kill Katherine. It also turned out that Katherine was a crafty little bitch and had herself linked to Elena. In the end it all miraculously worked out and Katherine ended up stuck in the freaky tomb along with the moonstone and Rhiannon with Elena were on their way to her car.

"So next time there's a party, how about we just go and have some vampire-free fun?" Rhiannon chuckled opening the passenger's side door. "Are you sure you don't want me to drive?"

"Nah, I'm feeling better already," Elena said pulling out the keys when some freak in a mask grabbed her. Rhiannon jumped out of the car to go help her tugging at his arm but he freed it from her grip easily enough smacking her full force across the face. She lost her balance and hit her head on the hood of the car and blacked out.

Elijah was on his way to meet up with Rose-Marie and Trevor. He was really interested what gave them the courage to call him considering they've spent the last five hundred years running from him and Klaus. Whatever the reason, it must've been a good one. It took him a couple hours to get to the place and he really hope that those two fugitives were not wasting his time. If that was the case, he'd make sure it was going to be worth him a while. He had no idea what treat he was in for.

Rhiannon woke up to the sensation of being carried in a strange man's arms and then being plopped on an old and dusty sofa right next to fully awake Elena. The man then proceeded to untie the ropes from their hands and feet.

"Well you're the doppelganger, you must not be harmed," the man said in a British accent turning his head over to Rhiannon: "You on the other hand."

Before she could react she was lifted up from the couch and felt the man's fangs sink into the flesh on her neck making her yelp in surprise and pain and trying to writhe away from his death grip.

"Trevor!" the female voice yelled. "Control yourself!"

The man stopped feeding on her and dropped her back on the sofa and walked away murmuring: "Buzzkill." Elena rushed to her side, trying to help her contain the bleeding wound on her neck.

"What's with the other girl?" the woman asked.

"She was with the doppelganger when he tried to kidnap her and she fought him. He didn't want her to alarm anybody and didn't know what else to do with her so the idiot took her too."

"I knew we should've just done it ourselves," the woman said, obviously irritated. "Oh well, we'll deal with her once this is over."

"What do you want with us?" Elena asked.

"My god, you look just like her," the woman murmured in amazement.

"But I'm not," Elena retorted getting up from that couch. Rhiannon felt like that was a bad idea. "Please, whatever you—"

"Be quiet!" the woman interrupted her sternly but she just kept on: "But I'm not Katherine. My name is Elena Gilbert. You don't have to do this."

"I know who you are. I said be quiet," the woman repeated again, the threat clear in her voice.

"Elena," Rhiannon whispered cautiously, warning her to back down, but to no effect.

"What do you want?" Elena kept pushing on. The woman was clearly done talking and smacked Elena right across the face making her land half on the sofa and half on Rhiannon.

"I want you to be quiet," the woman said one last time turning over to Rhiannon handing her a towel. "Same goes for you."

"Elena," Rhiannon shook her gently pressing the rag she soaked in water from the bottle Trevor brought her: "Elena, please wake up!"

She finally did and Rhiannon was pulling her into a sitting position while listening to the conversation the two vampires were having in the other room about sending a message to some Elijah. Whoever that was, Trevor seemed to be very scared.

"What happened?" Elena asked, confused.

"Shhh," Rhiannon pointed towards the door. "You were out for quite a while, I was beginning to worry. Let's go!"

They were making their way through the hallway as quietly as possible, but the house was really old and floors really creaky.

"Hey!" the woman yelled walking straight up to them with murderous expression in her eyes. "There's nothing around here for miles. If you think you're getting from this house, you're tragically wrong. Understand?"

"Who's Elijah?" Rhiannon asked.

"He's your worst nightmare," the woman oh so kindly elaborated and stormed away. Well that was comforting as hell.

"What are we going to do?" Rhiannon asked her.

"I don't know," Elena said. "We need to stall them. I'm sure Stefan and Damon are on their way."

"Well what if they're not?" Rhiannon asked panicking. "I saw them sun-proofing the house. They don't have daylight rings. All we need to do is get out of this house. As long as there's light outside, they won't follow us."

"No," Elena shot her down. "They look old and strong. They're gonna kill us. How's your neck?"

"It's already healed, but my jacket's ruined," she joked to lighten the pretty bleak mood.

Couple of hours passed, during which they managed to coerce Rose and Trevor to tell them why they kidnapped them in a first place and that Elena was in a great deal of trouble being the doppelganger and they key to breaking the curse. It was really time to try and run before this Elijah got there; otherwise they would both be screwed. Elena would be taken for some creepy ancient sacrifice and Rhiannon would probably end up as somebody's afternoon snack. They were running out of time.

Then the message from Bonnie came but Rhiannon was rather skeptical about the Salvatore boys getting there on time and she was right. Moments later, Rose was packing up her stuff when Trevor rushed into the room panicking and announcing Elijah's arrival. Well damn.

Elijah finally arrived knocking on the door of what once was a beautiful house and was met by rather freaked out Rose.

"Rose-Marie," Elijah said instead of a greeting. "Is there somewhere we can talk?"

"Yes, in here," She gestured towards a rather shabby looking living room. "You ha-have to forgive the house."

"Oh, what's a little dirt," he said smirking smugly closing the door behind him. "I completely understand."

"So tell me what is it that gives you the courage to call me?" he asked walking towards an armchair that looked the least dirty.

"I wanted my freedom," Rose started following him. "I'm tired of running. Are you in a position to grant me that?"

"I have complete authority to grant pardon to you and your little pet – what is his name these days – Trevor. If I so see fit."

"Katerina Petrova?" _'oh this should be good'_ Elijah thought to himself.

"I'm listening."

"She didn't burn in a church in 1864," well that certainly was interesting.

"Continue."

"She survived," Rose went on.

"Where is she?" Elijah asked getting tired of having to drag it out from her.

"You don't seem surprised by this," Rose quipped making Elijah sigh inwardly. Thank god he was so good at masking his true feelings.

"Oh, when you called and invited me into this armpit of civilization, which is mere three hours away from a town we know as Mystic Fall, I surmised it had everything to do with Katerina," Elijah explained. "Do you have her in your possession?"

"No," – _'are you kidding me?'_ "But I have better. I have her doppelganger."

"That's impossible," Elijah said exasperatedly. "Her family line ended with her, I know that for fact."

"Then your facts are wrong," Rose said a little smugly.

"Well show her to me," this is going to be really good.

"Elijah, you're a man of honor. You should be trusted, but I want to hear you say it again," Rose insisted.

"You had my word that I will pardon you," he had no problem with that. She got into this mess trying to help out her friend and he honored that.

"Follow me," Rose said and started towards the back rooms of the house and he followed closely. And there she was standing, looking exactly like Katherine, holding onto another girl who… wait. That's impossible. Could that be…? No, she'd been dead for over a thousand years. But this girl… it was like seeing a ghost that had been haunting his nightmares for centuries.

"Brenna," he whispered rushing down towards the girl who looked totally freaked out and backed up dragging Katherine's doppelganger along with her. Okay, take a deep breath and calm down. This clearly wasn't his long gone lover and he was sure there was a logical explanation for this, but business first. He walked towards the brunette sniffing along her collarbone lightly, whispering: "Human. It's impossible."

Then he turned over to Rhiannon looking her up and down. If Katherine's doppelganger existing was impossible, then Brenna's impersonation standing right in front of him was utter madness. He looked as composed as always on the outside, but on the inside, his mind was chewing and scratching the walls.

"And who are you?" Elijah asked, his voice in spite of his best efforts softening fractionally.

"I'm… I'm Rhiannon Petersen," she said, her voice although shaky, the same like hers used to be… Snap out of it Elijah!

"You didn't mention her," Elijah said turning over to Rose. "Why is she here?"

"She's her friend and she was with her when our guy grabbed her, so he took her too," Rose said. "She's not important."

"Oh, she just might be much more than that," Elijah murmured turning back at Rhiannon. "I'm taking them both."

"As you wish," Rose retorted looking somewhat confused.

"Well, we have a long journey ahead of us, we should be going," Elijah said walking towards the girls making them both back up u little.

"Please don't let him take us," Elena pleaded with Rose.

"One last piece of business and we're done," he said backing up never letting his eyes from Rhiannon.

"I've waited so long for this day Elijah," Trevor started. "I'm truly, very sorry."

"Oh, your apology is not necessary" – _'actually it's pointless to be precise'_.

"Yes, yes it is," Trevor insisted nervously making Elijah who was pacing around him smirk. "You trusted me with Katerina and I failed you." _'Oh, we're stating the obvious now?'_

"Well yes, you are the guilty one," Elijah agreed. "Rose aided you because she was loyal to you. That I honor. Where was your loyalty?"

"I beg you forgiveness," Trevor pleaded looking like he was seconds from wetting himself.

"It's all granted," Elijah said making Trevor smile. One little piece of mercy before he smacked his treacherous head off his shoulders making the girls yelp in horror and Rose cry starting towards him with murderous determination in her eyes. Loyal to the end.

"Don't Rose, now that you are free," he said dispassionately wiping his hand on a handkerchief, then gesturing towards girls who were backing up again. "Come."

"Wh-what about the moonstone?" Elena blurted out in panic.

"What do you know about the moonstone?" today has just been full of surprises, Elijah thought to himself.

"I know that you need it and I know where it is," Elena continued.

"Yes?"

"I can help you get it."

"Tell me where it is."

"It doesn't work that way," Rhiannon chimed in. She wasn't sure what to do anymore considering she just saw a guy whack another guy's head off with his bare hand. But if Elena wanted to stall, she was going to help her stall.

"Silence," Elijah said giving her a pointed and almost amused look that shut her up immediately. He could hear her heart was close to jumping out of her chest. "Are you two negotiating with me?"

"It's the first I've heard of it," Rose mumbled with teary eyes.

Elijah looked back at Elena trying the freaky vampire mind compulsion trick but it didn't work because of her necklace. He figured that out pretty quickly tearing it off of her neck and grabbing her by her hair. Rhiannon, against all logic, jumped him and tried to make him release Elena. He was getting really irritated at this point but managed to civilly enough peel her of his shoulder and wrap his arm around her waist holding her in place while never letting go of his grip on Elena.

"Tell me where the moonstone is," he compelled her still holding them both.

"In the tomb underneath the church ruins," Elena answered in a robotic-like voice.

"What is it doing there?"

"It's with Katherine."

"Interesting."

Then there was a loud bang and shattering of glass somewhere in the house making Elijah turn around, still not releasing his grip on Rhiannon who was trying to wriggle her way out but with zero effect. She was like a paper doll in his arms and was sure he could rip her to shreds if he wanted to.

"What is that?" he asked.

"I don't know."

"Who else is in this house?"

"I don't know." His patience was really wearing thin at this point so he grabbed Elena and dragged her and Rhiannon towards the exit, yelling: "Move!"

They were in the main hall of the house when what appeared to be two more vampires started blurring around them. Perfect! Like this day wasn't annoying enough. He released both Elena and Rhiannon and shoved them towards Rose.

"Up here," one of them murmured making Elijah blur through the hall and up the stairs.

"Down here," another voice called out. He was about to blur down again and rip his way through whatever idiots dared to stand in his way when a small wooded stake pierced right through his hand. And all three girls were gone.

"Excuse me!" he hollered walking down the stairs. "To whom it may concern, you're making a great mistake if you think that you can beat me. You can't."

"You hear that?" he continued grabbing the coat rack. "I repeat. You cannot beat me. I want both the girls. I'm going to count to three, or heads will roll. Do we understand each other?"

"We'll come with you," Rhiannon said standing on top of the stairs holding Elena who joined in: "Just, please don't hurt our friends. They just wanted to help us out."

Elijah blurred his way up the stairs again, saying: "What game are you playing with me?"

Then both Elena and Rhiannon pulled out the pins on what looked like a grenades of some sort and threw it towards him dunking away. It exploded right in his face burning him with vervain water. He recovered quickly and he was done playing nice. He started walking towards the girls when one of their friends ran down the stairs towards him shooting him with stakes from a stake gun but to no effect. He was old and strong and it would take much more than couple of toothpicks to put him down. The boy realized that and tackled him making both of them fall down the stairs.

Elijah being older and stronger, recovered faster and was on his way to release the fool out of his mortal coil when another man emerged from the darkness of the corridor and drove the provisional stake he made earlier from the coat rack through his heart, pinning him against the front door with it. The last thing he saw before he lost consciousness was Rhiannon standing on top of the stairs looking right at him.


	4. Chapter 4 - The Sacrifice

**CHAPTER 4 – THE SACRIFICE**

Rhiannon's head was pounding as she laid in her bed, replaying the conversation between her, Elena, Stefan, Damon and Rose that morning in the Salvatore boarding house.

"Okay, you have to understand I only know what I've picked up over the years, and I don't know what's true and what's not true," Rose started. "That's the problem with all this vampire crap, but Klaus, I know is real."

"Who is he?" Elena asked.

"He's one of the Originals," Damon chimed in. "He's a legend."

"From the first generation of vampires," Stefan added.

"Like Elijah?" Rhiannon asked.

"No, Elijah was the Easter Bunny compared to Klaus," Rose said exasperatedly.

"Just yesterday you were saying he was our worst nightmare," Elena murmured under her breath making Rose smirk at her own melodramatics yesterday.

"Yeah, well I wanted to scare you so…" she retaliated.

"Well it worked," Rhiannon added.

"Anyways, Elijah was a foot soldier," Rose continued. "Klaus is the real deal."

"Klaus is known to be the oldest," Stefan explained.

"Okay, so you're saying that the oldest vampire in the history of time is coming after me?" Elena asked incredulously.

"Yes."

"No."

"What they're saying. I mean if what she's saying is true—"

"Which it is."

"And you're not just saying it so we don't kill you—"

"Which I'm not."

"Than we're looking at solid maybe," Damon finished.

_Well that's just perfect_, Rhiannon thought to herself. It seemed like killing Elijah didn't solve anything and their problems just kept piling on. Not to mention her own problems. She kept replaying events of the previous day and could not understand Elijah's sudden fascination with her. Like Rose said, she was just a mild inconvenience and nothing more. It also seemed that nobody else was concerned with that and the only person who could shine some light on the matter was staked to a door three hundred miles away. Considering the shitload of problems that managed to crash on her head within the stretch of few days, she decided a day spent sulking in her bed was in order.

Later, she decided to meet up with Bonnie and Jeremy at the Grill and shoot some pool, so she got in the shower, then threw her shoulder-length auburn hair in a messy bun, deciding to keep her make-up minimal. She dressed in dark blue skinny jeans and paired them with a simple white wife-beater and green flannel shirt. Half hour later she was walking into Grill. She had lunch, played some pool and met the new guy, Luca.

It was about eight in the evening and she was walking back to her car, but she couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching her. She stopped and looked around but no one was there. Okay, if she'd been paranoid before, she was losing her mind now. Although technically, after the week she'd had, her paranoia wasn't all that surprising. She managed to get home in a record time, locking the door and all the windows, but she still couldn't shake the feeling that made the hair on her neck stand. She put the pepper spray under her pillow, just in case, but knew that it wouldn't be much help given all the supernatural crap that'd been happening around her. She had no idea of a dark figure in a suit that was watching her fall asleep through the window.

It was another busy day for Elijah. He didn't sleep much after he got back to his rental apartment replaying the vents of that day over and over in his head, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't get the image of her face out of his head. It was like it had imprinted itself on his eyelids. He decided to get up early and proceed with the plan, adding one more task to the already crowded folder in his head – find out everything he could about the girl.

He wasn't one for unnecessary displays of violence, that had always been Niklaus' domain, but blowing up the coffee shop with Damon, Rose and Slater inside, he felt like was justified. He also made sure to find Slater afterwards and make him deliver the message that would convince Rose and everybody else in Mystic Falls that finding and destroying the moonstone would help. Then he embarked on a little fact finding mission to town and was rather dismayed when he found out that anyone who could give him any valid information about both girls was on vervain. That would have to change, starting on the very top.

He was headed back to his apartment when he saw her leaving the local restaurant and he couldn't help but follow her home where he watched her sleep while waiting for Jonas to collect everything he needed for his shadow spell, if a need for such spell shall arise.

"You don't believe her, do you?" Elena asked the Salvatore brothers in the kitchen the following morning.

"No, of course not, we just want the moonstone," Damon said.

"Whatever for?" Rhiannon asked perched on a kitchen counter and sipping on her coffee.

"According to Rose's friend Slater there's a way to destroy the spell that Klaus wants to break," Stefan elaborated.

"No spell, no doppelganger sacrifice, ergo you live," Damon said smugly.

"How do you destroy it?" Elena asked dispassionately.

"By releasing it from the moonstone," Stefan explained.

"Okay, but where would the spell go? What, it will just vanish into thin air?" Rhiannon asked frowning.

"Yeah, how do you guys even know this is gonna work?" Elena asked, clearly just as much skeptical as Rhiannon.

"Cause we have a crafty witch on our side," Damon said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"You discussed it with Bonnie," Elena said starting to look pissed.

"She agreed to do anything she can to help us," Stefan said.

"Guys, I don't mean to piss in your cornflakes, but it's Katherine who has the moonstone, and I seriously doubt she's gonna hand it over without anything in return," Rhiannon said.

"We're gonna get it from her," Stefan retorted confidently.

"Well, what he means to say is that we will pry it from her cold dead hands if we have to," Damon explained making Rhiannon snort out lout.

"Bonnie just needs to find a way to release the seal long enough for us to get in, get the moonstone and get out in time for her to return it," Stefan elaborated further.

"Wow, I mean it sounds like you guys have it already planned out," Elena quipped.

"Yep, we're awesome," Damon joked.

"Well count me in," Rhiannon said happily. "Anything I can do to help."

"There's one thing," Elena started and Rhiannon instantly knew what she was going to say. "I don't want you to do it," – _here we go_, she thought.

"What are you talking about Elena?" Stefan asked incredulously. "We don't have a choice."

"What about Klaus?" she asked.

"We'll find him, right after we get the moonstone," Stefan retorted.

"Wait so your plan is to find the oldest vampire on Earth and tell him you ruined his only chance at breaking the spell he's been trying to break for ages?" Rhiannon asked incredulously.

"Is that before or after he kills everyone that I care about including the three of you?" Elena chimed in.

"Elena, we can de-spell the moonstone, we can save your life," Stefan explained as if she didn't understand.

"I know, everybody keeps saying that," Elena murmured getting up from her seat and leaving the kitchen.

"That went well," Rhiannon murmured.

"Thanks for the running commentary," Damon bit back. "You still wanna help or not?"

"What kind of a stupid question is that?" she said. "Of course I do."

"Well then go put some pants on, we've got a busy day ahead of us," Damon ordered snatching her unfinished coffee mug from her hands and walking away to the living room.

"Seriously?!" she yelled at him. "How'd you managed to live with him for 162 years and not kill him?" she turned around at Stefan who looked mildly amused.

"Oh, believe me, I've lost the count of time I wanted to," he joked.

Half hour later they were all gathered at the Salvatore house library discussing the actual plan.

"I might be able to lower the tomb spell long enough for you to get in there and grab the moonstone from Katherine," Bonnie said.

"How?" Jeremy cut her off. "It took both you and your grams last time and look what's happened to her."

"I'm well aware of what happened," Bonnie bit back. "I've learned a few new things."

"Bonnie," Jeremy said looking at her pointedly. There's something we don't know, Rhiannon thought to herself, but decided against pointing it out.

"How'll you get it?" Bonnie asked clearly done discussing whether she was able to do it or not.

"She hasn't been feeding, she's weaker. We're not," Stefan said pointing at Damon sipping blood from a fancy whiskey cup.

"You won't be underestimating her, would you?" Rhiannon asked skeptically. "Like at the masquerade?"

"It's a plan," Damon retorted. "Is it perfect? Pfft. What plan is?"

That's reassuring, Rhiannon thought. She liked their optimism though. At least they're trying to do something instead of sitting around and moping, like Elena decided to.

"Let me do it," Jeremy cut in. "I've got my ring; I can get in and out. No spell is necessary."

"Gee, thanks you sixteen years old child," Damon shot him down. "Why didn't we think about that? Why are you even here?"

"He's trying to help his sister and friends," Rhiannon bit back at Damon. "Could you please stop being such a dick for a moment?"

"Aww, is this about your coffee?" he teased making a pouty face.

"No it's not, but since you brought it up, touch my coffee again and vampire or not, you're dead," she joked faking a death serious expression on her face making Damon smirk at her devilishly. The two got along pretty well and she liked the way he was teasing her. Sort of like an older brother would. If she happened to have one.

"Will the two of you stop it?" Stefan begged, exasperated. "Focus, please."

"Maybe I can help better the plan," Bonnie joined. Alright, back to business. "Do you have anything that belongs to Katherine?"

After Bonnie was done burning a metal picture of Katherine into ash that could incapacitate her for a moment, getting Stefan and Damon more time to find the moonstone, they were all headed to the tomb. Rhiannon had never actually been there and she was both scared and excited. They were about to follow Stefan down the stairs when Damon's phone rang.

"It's Rose," he announced dispassionately. "Here, tell her I'm busy and find out what she wants," he said throwing his phone to Rhiannon.

"And since when am I you freakin' personal assistant?" she yelled at him answering the phone.

"Hey Rose, it's Rhiannon, Damon is actually bus—wait she did what?" she practically yelled into the phone grabbing Damon by his shoulder before he could climb down the rest of the stairs.

"Um, Damon? We need to get to Richmond, ASAP," she said giving him a pointed look.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Damon murmured throwing the shovel on the ground, grabbing Rhiannon and blurred towards the car.

"Okay, I know that you're worried and pissed and all that but next time, could you give me a little warning before you do that?" Rhiannon asked leaning against the car trying hard not to throw up.

"We don't have time for this," Damon said rolling his eyes already sitting behind the wheel. "C'mon, get in or I'm leaving you here."

"A road trip with pissed off Damon, lucky me," Rhiannon mumbled getting into a passenger's seat.

An hour later, they sneaked into Slater's apartment, Damon scaring the hell out of Elena.

"What are you doing here?" he asked, no trace of humor left in his voice.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him instead of answer. "You called him?" she asked Rose incredulously.

"I'm sorry, Elena," she said.

"You said you understood!"

"She lied," Damon said.

"Seriously Elena, what were you thinking?" Rhiannon asked.

"C'mon, we're leaving," Damon said.

"No," Elena bit back.

"I said we're leaving," Damon repeated.

"I'm not going with you," god was she stubborn.

"You do not get to make decisions anymore," Damon retorted.

"When have I ever made a decision? You and Stefan do that for me. Now this, this is my decision."

"Who's gonna save your life while you're out making decisions?" Damon bit back, sarcasm oozing out of his words.

"You're not listening to me Damon, I don't want to be saved!" Elena finally said. "Not if it means Klaus is gonna kill every single person I love."

The argument continued for a while and at one point it got so heated when Elena tried to punch Damon, which Rhiannon would find hilarious under different circumstances. But there was nothing funny about the situation they were currently in.

"So you're just planning to stay wait for this guy to come and take you away forever? What about Jeremy? And Jenna? What are we supposed to tell them while you go play a martyr and get yourself killed over some stupid curse?" Rhiannon was yelling at this point, not sure what exactly got her so riled up, but her emotions were all over the place ever since she supposedly triggered her werewolf curse.

"Yeah, what she said," Damon said. "And calm down feisty pants or you're gonna wake the whole damned building up. I'm gonna compel that girl not to remember a moment of this horribly stupid day."

Moments later, Damon was walking out of the bedroom gesturing for us to get up when three men barged into the apartment.

"We're here to meet the doppelganger," the leader announced.

"Thank you for coming," Elena said walking past Damon who stopped her threatening to break her arms if she speaks again.

"There's nothing here for you," he addressed the men. Second later, the one blocking the door dropped dead revealing a very alive Elijah, making Rhiannon grab onto Elena and Rose flee for her life, again.

"I killed you," Damon barked at him. "You were dead."

"For centuries now," Elijah retorted dispassionately and addressed the two remaining men: "Who are you?

"Who are you?"

"I'm Elijah," the two men instantly back up a bit, clearly knowing who he was.

"We were gonna bring her to you," he said. "For Klaus. She's the doppelganger. I don't know how she exists, but she does. Klaus will wanna see her."

"Does anyone else know that you're here? "Elijah asked, without showing any kind of emotion and not for a moment letting go of his sight of Rhiannon.

"No," the man replied.

"Well then you have been incredibly helpful," Elijah said and with a slight smirk ripped their hearts out, making both girls gasp in horror, then threw them on the ground theatrically.

Rhiannon was holding onto Elena for dear life watching Damon standing in front of them protectively; ready to fight the stronger vampire to the last minute. Then, even before she realized what was happening, she felt Elijah's hands grabbing her around her waist whisking her up in the air and the rest blurred into the cold night air.


	5. Chapter 5 - The Light Of The Moon

**CHAPTER 5 – THE LIGHT OF THE MOON**

It was the longest she'd ever been thrown over a vampire's shoulder running at an inhuman speed, and when Rhiannon finally felt a firm ground underneath her feet again, she was about to slump towards the ground breathing heavily. That didn't happen as she felt Elijah's strong arms grasp her shoulders gently and prop her up. She didn't waste any time and started trashing around in his arms in desperate effort to get away from him and surprisingly, he let her go.

She backed up against the wall with death glare that may had worked on toddlers she used to babysit, but it did nothing to intimidate the vampire standing few feet from her, cautiously watching her every move.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Rhiannon," he said in a very civilized manner that had her confused for a while.

"Where am I? What do you want from me?" she snarled at him looking around. They were in a rather large living room with few comfortable armchairs and huge white sofa.

"I need you to answer few questions for me," he said and gestured to the nearest armchair. "Please sit."

"I'm not helping you so you can sacrifice my friend over some stupid cursed honk of rock!" she yelled at him, surprised by her abrupt reaction herself. Was she seriously yelling at a centuries old vampire who could snap her neck like a twig? Surprisingly, he looked more amused than angry.

"I understand how you must feel about me, but rest assured, I mean you no harm," he said, still not moving from his spot.

"And I'm supposed to believe you? This is the second time you've kidnapped me," she bit back crossing her arms in front of her, noticing his hands were still covered in blood from earlier.

He followed her gaze realizing what she was looking at and quickly retrieved a towel to wipe his hands clean saying: "You have my word that I will not harm you," he put the towel down on a coffee table and smirked. "And technically, I only kidnapped you once. The first time was Rose and Trevor's doing."

"Don't play with me," she retorted. "Why would I help you with anything?"

"The first time we met," Elijah started talking. "I'm sure you must have noticed my reaction upon seeing you. Aren't you the least bit curious why I reacted in such manner?"

It seemed like he finally got her attention. She narrowed her eyes, her brows furrowed and she bit her lower lip in concentration, contemplating upon her options. He watched her while she was lost in thoughts for a moment and all the painful memories rushed to the surface. He had to remind himself that she wasn't Brenna. But that must've meant she was her descendant. She certainly had her fire.

"I'm listening," she said snapping him out of his thoughts. He smirked and gestured towards the armchair again and this time she took his offer sitting down across the table from him.

"The reason I reacted the way I did is that you look like someone I used to know long time ago," Elijah started.

"Brenna," she whispered under her breath making him wince internally. "You said that name when you saw me back there. Who is she?"

"Who was she would be a more precise question," he corrected her looking down on his hands for a moment before adding: "You look exactly like the woman I was supposed to marry some thousand years ago."

"What?!" she cried out. He realized how crazy that must have sounded to her, but he also wasn't quite sure how to make it better. "So what… I'm like your wife's doppelganger?"

"Not exactly," he shot her a small smile. "We never got married, but that's a story for another time. For now, we need to find out if you are descended from her bloodline."

"How?" still clearly in shock from the information he just unloaded on her.

"Well Brenna was from an old werewolf bloodline. Now, members of every werewolf clan, especially the old ones, can be recognized by a distinct mark upon their body – a birthmark of some sort. Her clan's mark looked like three crescent moons bound together in a—"

"Circle," Rhiannon finished his sentence placing her left arm on her right forearm where her birthmark was.

"May I see it?" Elijah asked standing up slowly. Rhiannon, clearly in a loss for words, just nodded and extended her right arm towards him as he knelt beside her armchair. He gently took it in his hands, noticing she flinched a little and in spite of her best efforts to conceal her fear, he could hear her heart beat loudly in her chest.

"You still don't trust me," it was more of a statement.

"Would you?" she retorted.

"Given the circumstances, I probably would not, but I am telling you the truth," he said and pulled up the sleeve of her denim jacket, revealing the mark. "And this birthmark proves it."

He stood up making her flinch once again. He wouldn't admit it but it hurt him a little bit that she would think he would ever hurt her. It was perfectly understandable though. She only knew him as a creepy old vampire who wanted to use her friend in a sacrifice ritual. He walked over to a pitcher to fill up a glass with water, and handing it to her, saying: "Rhiannon, for the last time, you need not fear me. I give you my word that I will not harm you. And I do not give my word lightly."

"I'm sorry," she murmured taking the glass from him. "It's just. This whole supernatural crap, it's all so new to me. I didn't have time to process it and accept it as a part of my life, yet. Two weeks ago I was convinced that vampires and werewolves only existed in bad movies, and now I learn that I'm a werewolf descended from one of the oldest werewolf clans in history and a doppelganger of a thousand-years-old vampire's long dead fiancée. You can't make this stuff up, even if you tried."

"I understand it's a lot to digest," Elijah said pouring himself a little bit of bourbon. "And please, don't apologize. It is I, who should apologize to you."

"So what happens now," she asked, fearing the answer.

"Now," he said standing up. "I'm going to take you home."

"Oh… wait what? So that's it?" she asked, surprised and relieved at the same time. "You're not gonna keep me hostage, or anything like that?"

"No, Rhiannon," he retorted, looking amused again. "I don't need leverage, for I believe I can make Elena an offer she won't be able to refuse."

"Was that a Godfather reference?" she choked out, before she could stop herself. This was ridiculous, but she saw that hint of genuine joy in his eyes on her acknowledgement before he was able to bury it behind his default 'dispassionate face' setting. "I apologize for ruining your jacket."

"Oh," she didn't even realize it before he pointed it out, but now she noticed two bloody stains on her shoulders where he caught her earlier to prevent her from face-planting on the ground along with several other stains around her waist where he grabbed her when he took her.

"Well I'm sure that's nothing a little bleach and machine washing wouldn't solve," she said sheepishly, not noticing Jonas Martin sneaking behind her.

"I'm also sorry for doing this to you, but I can't have you knowing where I live," he said and she could see a sincere regret in his eyes, even though she had no idea what he was talking about. Then she felt it, the sudden drowsiness, and before she could do anything, she slumped into the armchair.

"I wish it didn't have to be this way, but you have too many friends who would try to coerce the location of this place from you," he whispered to her unconscious form before whisking her up and carrying her home.

No one was home when Rhiannon woke up in her own bed an hour later, confused and pissed at Elijah for roofing her. She showered and went back to bed. She'd have a shitload of explaining to do the next day and she wasn't particularly looking forward to that. She fell asleep replaying events of the evening and trying to figure out the strange feeling she had around this mysterious man. He was incredibly handsome, there was no denying that, and whenever he looked at her, she felt the proverbial butterflies flutter around in her stomach, but it couldn't be just that. She wasn't so superficial. There was just something about him that made, against all judgment, her feel safe.

"So he kills three vampires for no valid reason, takes you away, and then lets you go couple hours later after sharing the history of your bloodline?" Damon asked incredulously the next morning, after making Rhiannon repeat the same story for the third time. "This guy's just full of surprises."

"Yea, I don't get it either," Elena agreed with Damon, which was a little surprising given the fact that she was currently pissed at him for trapping her in the house.

"Well I wish I could help you guys more, but sadly, he didn't feel like sharing his secret plans with me," Rhiannon said walking to the kitchen to grab a glass of water. She was feeling really under the weather that day, like she was about to come down with a flu or something. "Now, if you excuse me, I'm going back to my bed and die."

She spent most of the day sleeping, having really strange twisted dreams about things that had happened that week plus some really weird dreams about ancient looking people, whom she had never seen before. No one had disturbed her the whole day. Jenna was at Mayor Lockwood's, Jeremy in his room playing video games and Elena was in her room moping.

She woke up around eight in the evening to a terrible stomach ache and she felt like her whole body was going to ignite, giving her the worst migraine ever. She jumped out of bed and bee-lined for the bathroom where she proceeded to retch her guts out, feeling like she was going to pass out soon.

She was washing her mouth out when she looked out the bathroom window and saw the full moon. And then it hit her. She wasn't coming down with a nasty flu; she was indeed turning in to a freakin' werewolf! How could she forget that tonight was the full moon?! It completely slipped her mind. She turned around and barfed again, this time for a whole other reason.

She wobbled her way through the hallway, barging into Elena's room to see Elena and Elijah shaking hands, then looking utterly confused. She must have been a sight to behold, sweaty, hunched and leaning against the door, face contorted in pain. She didn't even have time to be surprised over Elijah's presence in the house.

Elijah just made a deal with Elena and was about to leave the house to continue with the plan when rather disheveled Rhiannon in her pajama shorts and tank top barged into the room.

"Elena, I think we might have forgotten about something important tonight," she said through gritted teeth looking pointedly out the window at the full moon that was gracing the night sky, her eyes turning that golden-yellow shade for a second or two, then turning back to their normal hazelnut color. "It's happening."

"Oh my god," Elena whispered in horror.

"No," Elijah, murmured. "Is she…?"

"She triggered the curse the day before Rose and Trevor took us," Elena elaborated.

"This is her first transformation?" he asked feeling panic rise in his throat. He needed to get her out of the house before she would tear it down.

"Yes," Elena said and started towards Rhiannon to help her out, but Elijah stopped her. "No! Stay back. The moon's almost reached its apex, it won't be long now. I need to get her out of the house and into the woods. Now!"

"What are you gonna do—" Elena was about to ask when Rhiannon cried out in pain and fell on the floor as her bones started to break in transformation.

"Help me, please," she pleaded in barely audible whisper.

"Elena! Hand me that blanket!" Elijah instructed, whisking Rhiannon up into his arms once again and getting ready to run. He grabbed the duvet, the girl handed him and within a minute, he was in the woods, laying Rhiannon on the ground carefully, then spreading the blanket and laying her on it. He kneeled on the blanket and propped her limp delirious body up against his, caressing her hair lightly.

How could he not notice this? Usually he could tell werewolves by their distinct scent, he didn't smell anything yesterday. Perhaps it was because she hadn't turned before. Usually he came in contact with much older and experienced wolves. She was a newbie.

Her skin was on fire and he could hear her heart beat at a rate that would send a normal human into a cardiac arrest. He knew exactly what was going to happen to her. He still remembered how Brenna's brother Hagen, a fearsome warrior, came to him after his first transformation describing every horrible moment of it with tears in his eyes.

The only thing he could do at that moment was to be there for her; run with her once she'd turn and prevent her from killing anybody. Having to go through such drastic and painful transformation and losing control of her body was traumatic enough without adding the guilt and remorse over killing innocent people into the mix.

He was shaken out of his thoughts by another one of her anguished screams that were tearing his heart to pieces, as every single bone in her body started to break, and soon enough her eyes turned and stayed golden-yellow while her canines started extending as she began convulsing in the last stages of her transformation.


	6. Chapter 6 - The Friendship

**CHAPTER 6 – THE FRIENDSHIP**

It was well past 2 a.m. when Rhiannon finally turned back into her human form. Elijah had watched her howl through the night from afar making sure she wouldn't cross paths with anybody else. He wasn't worried for himself, because the bite wouldn't kill him, but he also couldn't exactly afford the luxury of coming down with the wolf bite too.

He also noticed she wasn't the only werewolf in town this full moon. When he carried her into the woods to turn, he happened to come near what appeared to be the old Lockwood cellar and overheard Tyler Lockwood's transformation. He also stumbled upon freaked-out Caroline Forbes in the middle of the woods. She had no idea who he was and he managed to compel some information out of her, making her forget their encounter. It seemed like she had taken upon herself to help Tyler through his first transformation, but he was wondering why she wouldn't help one of her best friends. It turned out that Damon didn't want the boy to know about the rest of the supernatural residence in Mystic Falls, including Rhiannon, and helping both of them might bring out questions she couldn't answer.

He watched wolf-Rhiannon crawl into the shadows of trees and when he heard her strangled sobs, he knew it was over. He walked up to her naked curled up body, covering it with the blanket he'd been prudently carrying around with him the whole time. She raised her head as he was lifting her up from the ground, her beautiful face tear-stained, confused and covered in dirt was showing every single emotion that was racking her at that moment. He sat back down with her in his arms hugging her tightly gently. He knew she was in a lot of pain.

"You made it," he whispered soothingly to her. "It's over. You're alright."

"No I'm not," she whispered so quietly that anyone without his enhanced hearing wouldn't notice. "Will you take me home, please?"

"Of course," Elijah whispered pressing his lips on top of her head, too gently for her to notice. "We just have to make one quick stop on our way back."

While he was out following the little wolf, he called the Martin witches to remove the seal on the tomb. Now all that was left to do was let Stefan out and compel Katerina to stay put. He sat Rhiannon down on the wall next to the staircase that led down to the tomb wrapping the blanket tight around her.

"I'll be quick, I promise," he said rubbing his hands on her shoulders to keep her warm.

"It's okay," she rasped, her voice hoarse from all the screaming she did earlier. "I'm just glad you can get Stefan out."

"I'll be right back," he said and shooting her a small smile, began his descent to the tomb.

He removed the huge block of stone, serving as a provisional door, alerting the two captives to his presence. It wasn't long before they both emerged from the shadows, approaching the exit cautiously and it filled him with an extreme amount of satisfaction to see Katerina stop dead in her tracks and nearly wetting herself from fear upon seeing him stand outside the tomb. He once felt something for her, but that all changed once he got the glimpse of her real self-serving personality.

"Elijah," she mumbled, her voice shaking.

"Good evening Katerina," he said. "Thank you for having a good sense to be frightened."

"Your release has been requested," he said turning over to Stefan.

"What?" the young vampire asked, clearly confused. "By whom?"

"The lovely Elena drives a hard bargain," Elijah elaborated. "However we reached a peaceful agreement, she and I."

Stefan still didn't trust him and Elijah was in no mood to prolong his stay in a presence of Katerina.

"Please," he said stepping aside, gesturing for Stefan to come out. "Come."

"I can't," Stefan objected.

"Yes, you can," Elijah corrected him. "I've had the spell lifted," he elaborated waiting for Katerina's reaction and it didn't disappoint him. He saw that flicker of opportunism in her eyes and knew he would try to flee the minute she was sure the seal was broken. And he was right, as soon as Stefan stepped out of the tomb cautiously, she bee-lined for the exit, but Elijah was faster, stopping her dead in her tracks, second time that evening.

"As for you however," he started using his mind compulsion. "You shall not exit until I say so. When Klaus comes, he'll want to know exactly where you are."

Then he turned to Stefan again saying: "You're free to go. Elena will explain the arrangement to you. She keeps her word, I'll keep mine."

Then he left picking Rhiannon, who seemed to have dozed off, up from the wall and blurred with her in his arms back to her home leaving Stefan where he was. Moments later, he was laying her down on her bed when she woke up. He was about to grab another blanket to cover her with when she grabbed his hand.

"Please don't leave me alone," she looked at him, tears already welled up in her beautiful eyes just ready to roll down her dirt-stained cheeks. "My parents are on the other side of the planet and nobody in this house cares about my problems. I don't have anybody else. I'm alone in this."

"Don't worry, sweetheart, I'm not going anywhere," he whispered caressing few strand of hair from her face. "I'm just going to get you some food and water. I'll be back before you notice I'm gone."

He walked out of her room into a darkened hallway where he leant on the wall, breathing heavily. His emotions were overwhelming him, threatening to burst out on the surface from where he'd been keeping them, securely contained and buried deep. He had a plan he needed to focus on. He couldn't allow himself to feel the way he felt about her, yet he couldn't stay away.

He managed to get his feelings under control again and twenty minutes later walked back into Rhiannon's room with grilled cheese sandwich and ice tea. He managed to maneuver around the house without anyone noticing his presence since the only person, who could hear him, was preoccupied upstairs with the latest doppelganger, no doubt making up for the time they spent apart.

Rhiannon was sleeping soundly and he didn't want to wake her, so he sat on the edge of her bed, watching her and contemplating his next moves. Things got undeniably more complicated ever since she appeared in his life few days ago, but for once, it was a complication he didn't mind one bit.

The next morning when Rhiannon woke up, she was still a little shaken. Elijah was gone, but on her nightstand, there was a tray with delicious looking grilled cheese sandwich, ice tea and a note that read:

_Dear Rhiannon, _

_I apologize for my early departure, but I had some business that required my presence. I know that what you've been through last night was extremely traumatizing, but you managed to get through it with flying colors. I know we don't know each other all that well, but I am really proud of you. I want you to take plenty of rest today and, PLEASE, try and stay out of trouble. I will stop by later to check up on you. Until then, take care._

_Your friend_

_ Elijah_

Reading this made a wide smile stretch across her face. So they were friends now? She grabbed the plate and devoured the sandwich within minutes, washing it down with some tea. She was about to get up and go shower, considering she was still butt naked and covered in dirt, and her head was one wild tangle of auburn hair, leaves and twigs, when Elena knocked on her door.

"Hey, can I come in?" she asked.

"Yeah, sure," Rhiannon mumbled loud enough for her to hear.

"Hi, how're you doing today?" Elena asked, clearly concerned.

"Peachy," Rhiannon bit back before she could stop herself. "I'm sorry, it's just, these past two days have been one giant emotional rollercoaster and I'm still a little edgy."

"It's perfectly understandable," Elena said and sat next to her on her bed. "So I came in early this morning to check up on you. Stefan told me he saw Elijah took you home last night after you've, you know…"

"Yeah, he's been with me the whole night," Rhiannon said. "He's been watching me, making sure I don't hurt anybody. I don't remember much of it. Honestly, the whole time I was a wolf is a total blur, but I felt his presence nearby, somehow. I can't explain it. But yea, after it was over, we went to free Stefan and then he took me home."

"Wow, that's actually very sweet of him," Elena said. "I wouldn't think he would go to such lengths to hold his end of the deal."

"What deal?" Rhiannon asked, confused.

"He promised to protect everybody I care about if I help him kill Klaus," she elaborated.

"Oh wow, that's generous of him," Rhiannon couldn't help but feel a little disappointed. She thought he helped her because in some weird way, he cared about her, but now it seemed it was all just because he made a deal with Elena, so everything he did for her last night was just means to an end. She knew she should be thankful and deep down, she was but she just thought his motives for helping her were a little different.

"Anyway," Elena started, snapping Rhiannon out of her thoughts. "There's another reason why I came to see you."

"Yea?" Rhiannon asked. "What reason is that?"

"Last night, a werewolf got inside the Salvatore boarding house and attacked Rose," Elena elaborated. "She got bitten. It healed at first, but then it got back and it doesn't look good now."

"Oh man, that really sucks," Rhiannon mumbled. "But there's gotta be a way to fix it, right?"

"I hope so," Elena retorted. "Damon's working on it. But um… Are you sure Elijah was with you the whole night? Is it possible he might have lost you for a moment and you happened to—"

"Bite Rose?" Rhiannon couldn't stop herself from snarling at her. "No, Elena, I didn't bite her and if you have any more doubts, I suggest you ask Elijah. Now if you excuse me, I need to shower."

"No, Rhiannon, I'm sorry—"

"Yea, I know," she cut her off again. "You needed to make sure. I get it."

"I'm headed back to Stefan's to look after Rose." Elena said. "Are you sure you're gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine, Elena," Rhiannon shot her a small smile. "Give Rose my best, will you?"

Minutes later she was standing under scorching hot water in the shower, trying to relax her muscles. She was really sore and not in mood for anything else other than bed and some comfort food. She felt much better once she got out, combed her hair, put on some black leggings and an oversized Johnny Cash T-shirt topping it off with the coziest hoodie and socks she managed to find.

She went downstairs and made some chicken nuggets and mashed potatoes. After she was done with that, she left the mess in the kitchen to deal with later and climbed back upstairs thinking about a movie marathon to distract her from the real world. She was watching The Godfather for the bigillionth time when a familiar voice she'd been subconsciously expecting to hear all day said: "And what pray-tell made you choose this particular cinematographic masterpiece?" making her almost jump out of her skin.

"You scared the hell out of me!" she protested weakly.

"I do apologize for that," he said giving her that stupid lopsided smirk that started to have a very bad effect on her. "How do you feel tonight?"

"Um… better I guess," she mumbled sheepishly, sitting cross-legged on her bed. "Thanks for the grilled cheese by the way."

"You are most certainly welcome," he smiled at her, looking around her room with interest, then sat into an armchair by her bed.

"And not just for that, for everything you did last night. I knew you were with me the whole time, I guess you could say I sensed your presence, or whatever," she said looking down at her hands. "I know you only did it for Elena, but um still… I really appreciate it."

"Again, you are welcome," he said leaning forward, propping his elbows on his thighs. "I'm curious though, what makes you think that what I did for you last night was because of Elena?"

"Well you made a deal with her to protect everyone she loves," she continued, still not looking at him.

"That is true," he said standing up and started pacing around her room again. "However, that had nothing to with me helping you last night Rhiannon. I did what I did, because I care about you."

"You barely know me," Rhiannon retorted.

"That's true as well," he agreed. "Nevertheless, within that short span of time, you've managed to intrigue me. And not just because your resemblance to Brenna. You are strong, independent, beautiful young woman and you deserve the best. You deserve to have somebody to look out for you, and I would very much like to be that somebody. I want to be your friend," he said sitting on the far edge of her bed. "That is if you let me."

"Um… sure," was all she managed to blurt out at that moment. "Thanks?"

Wow, she certainly didn't expect that, but she couldn't say she wasn't happy about it. "So… you wanna stay and watch the movie with me friend?" she asked patting the bed next to her.

"I would like that very much," he said smiling and stood up, heading for the armchair again. Rhiannon couldn't help but giggle at his chivalry. Always the gentleman.


	7. Chapter 7 - The Spat

**CHAPTER 7 – THE SPAT**

"Rhiannon, I need to tell you something else," Elijah started after they finished the movie. "I feel like you should know that there are more werewolves in this town."

"I know," she interrupted him, and after she saw he was baffled by this, she continued: "Elena told me that another wolf broke into Salvatore boarding house and got Rose. That woman. Jules."

"Right," he said pensively. "Well there is another one."

"Who?" Rhiannon asked.

"Tyler Lockwood," Elijah said making Rhiannon jump from her bed. "Your friend Caroline was helping him last night. I crossed paths with her in the woods and I compelled her to tell me what she was doing there."

"So Caroline was helping Tyler Lockwood of all people and nobody bothered to tell me anything?!" she snarled at no one in particular. She was getting tired of constantly being left out of the loop. "I mean when did he even trigger the curse?"

"From what I gathered, it happened on the masquerade party the night before you were taken. The reason why nobody told you is that they don't want Tyler know too much of anything," Elijah said, trying to reason with her. "He only knows that Caroline's a vampire, he doesn't know anything else and they want to keep it that way."

"That's all very nice," she snapped plopping back on her bed with an angry huff. "They could've at least told me. I can keep a goddamn secret. They still don't trust me."

"Look I know it's not nice to be left out of things," Elijah started sitting on bed next to her. "But your friends just wanted to protect you and themselves."

"I know," she said playing with the sleeve of her hoodie. "It's just frustrating."

"Well, it would appear that you have an unexpected house guest," Elijah said, not looking particularly pleased.

"What are you talking about?" Rhiannon asked.

"Elena's uncle John," he explained. "I should go anyway. It's getting late and you have school tomorrow."

"Gee, thanks dad," she murmured making him snort at her inelegantly.

"Good night Rhiannon," he said walking towards the window and sitting on the sill he added "Thank you for a wonderful evening."

"Wonderful evening?" she asked arching her left eyebrow. "All we did was watching a movie."

"True, but I don't remember the last time I did something so mundane and enjoyed every single minute of it," he retorted. "Perhaps it had something to do with the company."

She blinked rapidly in reaction to what he just said, but before she could say anything else, he was gone. She fell asleep with a smile on her face that night.

"We need to talk," Stefan said in a very serious tone of voice when Rhiannon answered her phone that morning. "Can you meet me at Caroline's?"

"Yea, I can be there in ten," she said sipping at her coffee before pouring it into a travel mug. She was happy she had a reason to leave the house earlier, actually. Earlier that morning she ran into Elena having a heated argument with her uncle slash father – Jeremy filler her in on remaining parts of the story – before they were all interrupted by Jenna and Alaric. To say things were awkward would be an understatement.

She was parking before Caroline's when Stefan knocked at her window.

"So before we go inside, I should fill you in on couple of things," he started but Rhiannon already knew what those things would be. She decided to go along and play dumb.

"Tyler was so upset," Caroline said. "The look on his face… He was so betrayed."

"Wow, this is bad," Rhiannon chimed in.

"You're not gonna tell Damon, are you?" Caroline turned around abruptly.

"No," he retorted. "He already wants to kill him. He thinks all werewolves should die."

"Well that's lovely," Rhiannon murmured.

"Well he's not wrong to think that," Stefan continued.

"Seriously?" Rhiannon snarled. "Did you bring me here to help or to announce Damon's plans for Mystic Falls werewolf genocide?!"

"No, no one is talking about werewolf genocide, don't be melodramatic," Stefan said apologizing. "But what if Tyler tries to retaliate? He has every right to. He can get himself killed."

"We're not gonna let that happen," Caroline said firmly. "We have to get to him and reason with him before he does something stupid. You have to talk to him. Just try to explain you know? You always know the right things to say."

Stefan looked more than a little reluctant, but Caroline just pushed on, pleading some more. "Look, he and I… we're friends."

"I can come with you," Rhiannon offered. "Maybe he'll listen. I can help persuade him, you and Damon are not the enemies."

"YES! Yes, Rhiannon you're a lifesaver," Caroline cried out, hugging her. "Thank you so much."

Moments later, they were sneaking inside the Lockwood mansion trying to find Tyler when Stefan heard him in the office. They entered through one of the glass doors without Tyler noticing them but Rhiannon knew exactly when he realized he wasn't alone by the way he tensed. He almost fooled them, but Stefan was faster, blocking the doorway.

"I'm not gonna hurt you," Stefan said. "I just wanna talk."

"Then why did you break in?" Tyler asked.

"Would you've let me in otherwise?" Stefan retorted.

"Tyler?!" Mayor Lockwood's voice hollered down the hallway announcing that she was leaving for the memorial. Tyler, being Tyler, tried to make a run for it, but he was no match for Stefan, who threw him against the wall whispering: "Not a word."

"Seriously Tyler, we're not here to hurt you," Rhiannon urged after his mom left. She really didn't want anyone else to get hurt.

"Maybe we got off on the wrong foot here," Stefan said releasing his grip on him.

"What are you doing here?" Tyler barked at Rhiannon.

"Right, I guess your friend Jules forgot to mention that I'm a werewolf too," she said struggling to keep her sarcasm in check. "Or maybe she doesn't know."

"Yea right," Tyler retorted not believing her. "Did they put you up to this?"

"And why the hell would I lie about being a werewolf?" Rhiannon snapped at him. "It's not exactly a picnic being one around here, which I'm sure you're beginning to realize."

"Your eyes," Tyler murmured. They must've turned color without her realizing it. "So you're with them?"

"Them?" Rhiannon asked incredulously. "There is no us or them. They are my friends."

"But they're vampires! I thought vampires hated werewolves," Tyler countered.

"That's some sort of leftover idea from another time," Stefan retorted. "It doesn't have to be that way anymore. We go to the same school, we have the same friends, we keep the same secret. This can work Tyler. It's your home, it's my home too. I want this to work."

"Yea, plus you're not the only werewolf in town, we can help each other," she added. "We can only benefit from this."

Rhiannon thought they at least got them thinking but that went to hell when Tyler's phone started ringing and he answered it crying for help before Stefan could stop him.

"Whose number was that?" he asked sternly throwing the phone on a table.

"Dammit, Tyler!" Rhiannon yelled exasperated.

"I'm trying to save your life here," Stefan joined. "Can't you see that?!"

It'd been couple more hours, during which they'd been trying to convince Tyler that they're not his or anybody else's enemies, when Stefan's phone rang. It was that other werewolf, Jules. She had Caroline and she was going to kill her unless they brought Tyler over to a clearing by Wickery Falls.

"You're happy now?!" Rhiannon barked at Tyler before she could stop herself. "I'm gonna go get Damon, I'll call you."

She made it to the Grill in record time, calling Elijah to let him know what's happening, and ten minutes later they were parking Damon's car on an empty road sideway, making their way towards the clearing.

"So what's the plan?" Rhiannon asked, nervous and excited at the same time.

"Well Stefan and Tyler went there ahead. He said they're keeping Caroline in an RV. I'm going to catch up with them and distract Jules and whoever's with her while you go and free Caroline," Damon elaborated.

"Okay," she murmured. "When it inevitably comes to a bloodbath, will you please try and leave Tyler out of it?"

"Ugh, not you too," Damon said exasperatedly. "The guy's a toolbag."

"Yea, but he's also my friend, and Elena's and Caroline's," she countered.

"Is that supposed to matter to me?" he retorted.

"Yea right, I forgot you don't care," Rhiannon murmured. "The all werewolves must die thing and all."

"Oh c'mon, you know I wouldn't hurt you," Damon said casually. "I didn't mean that. I'm on the edge lately."

"No shit Sherlock," she murmured in response. "Plus, Elena would never forgive you, am I right?"

"No, Rhiannon, because I actually like you," Damon snapped. "But keep nagging me about Elena and I'm sure that'll change quickly."

"Ha-ha," she said punching him in his arm playfully. Damon gave her one last smirk and disappeared into the dark.

"Douchebag," she muttered to herself sneaking towards the small light of the fire on the clearing when she noticed about a dozen men lurking in the darkness. She dunked behind the nearest tree listening closely. She almost jumped out of her skin when she heard a sharp whistle. The men started moving from the woods to the clearing and she slowly made her way towards the RV.

"Give us Tyler!" the woman, presumably Jules, requested in a stern voice. Rhiannon peeked from behind the RV and saw Damon encouraging Tyler to go over to her.

"Which one of you killed Mason?" one of the men asked.

"Um, that'd be me," Damon said with his typical nonchalance.

"Boys, make sure that one suffers," the man retorted. God this is going to get ugly. But she had no chance of sneaking into the RV until the actual fight started. _Oh here we go!_ she thought to herself as she saw Damon blur towards Jules.

She managed to sneak into the RV only to see Tyler standing over Caroline locked in a freaking cage.

"What the hell are you waiting for?!" Rhiannon yelled, shoving him aside and getting Caroline out of there. "Oh my god, are you okay?!"

"Yea, just get me out of here," Caroline cried. Rhiannon tried to pull up the cage door but it was too heavy. Surely it was made so it could keep a werewolf from getting out.

"Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help me save our friend?!" she snapped at him. The boy really needed to work out his priorities. He shook himself and helped her lift the door long enough for Caroline to crawl out of there. Oh god was that a shot?

Caroline ran out of the RV and was immediately grabbed by Jules, who shoved her against the RV pointing a gun at her head.

"Let her go!" Rhiannon snarled, her eyes turning yellow again, and catching Jules by surprise momentarily. She jumped at her, but she was stronger and she hit Rhiannon in the face with her gun, making her see stars and fall on the ground. Tyler came out of the RV second later looking around, then on Caroline who looked back at him pleadingly, but it seemed like he picked this shabby pack of wolves over his friends.

From the corner of her eye she noticed that one of the werewolves kneeled over Damon with a stake in his hand.

"No!" she screamed and tried to move towards them, but before anything happened, everybody on the clearing except her, Stefan, Damon, Caroline and Tyler started screaming in pain and holding their heads in their hands, one by one they slumped to the ground, unconscious. Only then she noticed Jonas Martin walking towards them.

"Elijah made a promise to Elena," Martin said to Stefan. "I'm here to see it's upheld. You need to go."

He didn't have to tell them twice. They all gathered up and started walking past him, when he grabbed Rhiannon's arm saying: "Elijah's waiting for you at the Wickery Bridge."

"Is he now?" she snapped at Martin and freed her arm from his grip. She was pissed. Martin is working for Elijah? That means the moonstone had likely never been destroyed and, in spite all his talk about nobility and honesty, he lied to her. She didn't even remember how she got to the bridge, but there he was standing propped against his car with his arms crossed looking… pissed?

"I got a message from your little witch minion," she deadpanned.

"I can see that," Elijah replied nonchalantly. "What the hell were you doing on the clearing? I told you I'll take care of it and to stay out of it."

"I… what?!" she stuttered taken aback by his reaction. Did he just swear? Technically it was way less horrible than anything that came out of her sailor mouth, but still. "I was helping my friend! And since when am I supposed to obey your orders?!"

Elijah's patience was wearing thin at that point. Not only he was worrying himself sick when Martin located her and found out she went to the clearing anyway, it took every ounce of restraint for him not to run to the clearing and kill every last one of the werewolf pack. And now she was there, yelling at him, looking beautiful in spite of the drying blood on her face that came from a small semi-healed wound on the bridge of her nose.

"Please calm down," he said handing her his handkerchief. "What happened to you?"

"Jules got me with her gun when I jumped her," she murmured matter-of-factedly. "Bitch is fast."

"Indeed," he deadpanned. "It would serve you well to remember not to pick a fight with older and stronger werewolves."

"Don't patronize me," she snarled at him. "So Martin witches are working for you. Am I correct to assume that the moonstone is still in one piece?"

"Yes," he said. She didn't need to hear anything else. She handed him his handkerchief back, giving him the most hateful look she could muster considering the tears that were welling up in her eyes at that point and started walking away. She didn't walk far before he grabbed her by her arm making her turn around and shove him in his chest yelling: "Leave me alone!"

"Rhiannon, wait!" he pleaded but she was having none of it.

"You say you want to be my friend, say how you're gonna protect everybody, yet you lied to me about the moonstone and working with Martins!" she yelled at him with her arms crossed across her chest. "You still want to let Elena get sacrificed over that stupid curse, don't you?!"

"Let me explain," he said and started approaching her but she backed up with a determined expression on her face.

"Why would I listen to you?!" she countered. She hated the way her face always betrayed her every emotion. She realized that deep down she wanted him to explain everything, to make her understand his motives, but she knew there was still so much he hadn't told her, and he probably never would.

"You don't have to talk to me anymore if you don't want to, but I want you to trust me when I say that if everything goes according to my plan, Klaus will be gone and not one of your friends will come to harm. Not even Elena." he said

"I want to believe you, but you gotta give me at least something!" she said, throwing up her hands in the air in frustration. "Are you going to tell me your plan?" she asked but she knew the answer before he given it. He wouldn't tell her. He shook his head and muttered: "I can't."

"Right," she muttered and started walking away again. This time, he didn't stop her.


	8. Chapter 8 - The Amends

**CHAPTER 8 – THE AMENDS**

To say Elijah was in a foul mood the whole night and morning after Rhiannon walked away from him would be an understatement. He followed her and made sure she got home safe; he watched her cry herself to sleep contemplating upon his options.

After Brenna, he never allowed himself to fall for anybody so deeply. There were other women that entered his life and made him care again. There was Katerina, and of course Celeste, but when push came to shove, he had always chosen his obligations towards his family over them, ultimately losing them as a consequence. Celeste paid the price with her life and Katerina turned into a vicious manipulative monster he barely recognized anymore. Frankly, he couldn't decide which was worse. He was more and more sure that he didn't want to repeat the same pattern where Rhiannon was concerned. Maybe the time had come for him to put his happiness first again.

He didn't expect to see her at the tea party Mayor Lockwood held for him, but there she was standing next to Jenna, wearing a leather jacket over simple black dress with a floral pattern, talking to Jenna. He barely even registered what the Mayor was talking about and when the young vampire approached them, she followed him with her gaze and for a moment when she locked eyes with Elijah, he could see all the hurt and confusion in her beautiful hazel orbs before she directed them back to Jenna, to excuse herself and walked away.

Rhiannon talking to Alaric, when she saw Elijah enter the study with Damon. She gave in to her curiosity and decided to leave Alaric and eavesdrop on the macho face-off that would inevitably happen between the two vampires. Boy was she right.

"What can I do for you Damon?" Elijah asked in an overly civilized manner. To everyone who knew him well enough, it would a sign they should tread carefully. However, Damon being Damon was completely oblivious to the fact that he was walking on a very thin ice.

"I was hoping we could have a word," Damon replied.

"Where's Elena?" Elijah asked. He couldn't help but notice the doppelganger's absence.

"Safe with Stefan. Layin' low, you know. We had a bit of a werewolf problem."

"Oh yea, I heard about that."

"I'm sure you did since it was your witch who saved the day," Damon said, leaning on the table casually.

"You're welcome," Elijah said, the strain in his voice becoming evident with every uttered word.

"Which adds to my confusion exactly why you're here," Damon pushed on.

"Why don't you just focus on keeping Elena safe and leave the rest to me?" Elijah said courtly turning around to leave the room before the temptation to rip Damon's head off would become too difficult to resist. The young vampire of course overlooked the thinly veiled threat and blurred in front of him hindering his way out of the room saying: "Not good enough."

Before he could do or say anything else, Elijah grabbed him by the throat and blur-shoved him against the wall behind the desk. Damon of course tried to retaliate by grabbing Elijah by his throat but that had about as much effect on him as if a toddler did it.

"Young vampires, so arrogant," Elijah said with a hint of emotion in his voice that made Rhiannon decide it was time to intervene. She barged into the room catching both vampires by surprise.

"Let him go Elijah! Please!" Rhiannon pleaded.

He ignored her pleas and turned back to Damon, saying: "How dare you come in here and challenge me?"

"You can't kill me, remember? It's not part of the deal," Damon rasped defiantly making Rhiannon face-palm inwardly.

"Silence," Elijah said sternly. That was the second time Rhiannon heard him utter those two syllables and it sent shivers down her spine that had only little to do with an actual fear. She was snapped out of her thoughts by the sight of Elijah stabbing Damon in the neck with a number two pencil.

"I'm an Original," Elijah said matter-of-factedly, handing Damon his handkerchief. "Show a little respect. The moment you cease to be of use to me, you're dead. So you should do what I say. Keep Elena safe."

Elijah turned around and walked out of the room without a word. He wasn't proud of his behavior and he knew that it wasn't going to win him any points with the young werewolf, but it would appear that demonstrations of power such as this one worked best with this particular lot of supernaturals.

"Are you okay?" Rhiannon asked Damon when they were alone.

"What do you think?!" he snapped at her cleaning the blood from the table.

"Well that's what you get for pissing off an Original vampire," Rhiannon bit back. "I mean what did you think would happen? Did you think Elijah will spill all his dirty secrets over tea and cookies?"

"Yea-yea, smartass," Damon retorted. "Are you gonna help me clean this up or what?"

"No can do," Rhiannon said putting her phone back to her pocket. "Apparently my services are needed at the Grill. Bonnie has a plan to find out more about Elijah's plans. Go and compel one of the maids to clean it for you."

"That's not a bad idea," Damon smirked at her. "Keep me posted on what she finds out."

"Will do," she said walking out of the study.

Thirty minutes later she was in Caroline's house placing candles around the living room.

"How does this work?" Jeremy asked.

"I'll put him in trance and ask him questions, it's like hypnosis," Bonnie explained.

"Are you sure you're strong enough for this?" Jeremy asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

"That's what the candles are for," she elaborated further. "I'll draw power from the flames."

"I'll get the matches," Caroline chimed in.

"I got it," Bonnie said lighting all the candles with her mind.

"Wow," Rhiannon murmured sitting down into the armchair behind Bonnie.

"Never gonna get used to that," Jeremy added.

"Oh c'mon, that's pretty hot and you know it," Caroline countered making Rhiannon smirk. It was so obvious Jeremy had a crush on Bonnie.

"I need a bowl of water," Bonnie said smiling sweetly.

"Yea, I'll get it," he said walking to the kitchen.

"Okay, what was that?!" Bonnie whispered, furious. "It's hot?"

"He's so crushing on you!" Caroline retorted.

"C'mon Bon, it's pretty obvious it's mutual too," Rhiannon added.

"Would you rather be with the traitor warlock over here?" Caroline asked with her typical attitude.

"No, I'm not into Luka," Bonnie protested. "It's just you know, he understood me and he was new and different."

"And you've known since forever and you only see him one way – as Elena's brother," Rhiannon added from her armchair.

"But you're a witch, I'm a vampire and Rhiannon's a werewolf," Caroline countered. "You know, it's not like we're in any position to—"

"Be picky," Bonnie finished for her making them all chuckle.

"No," Caroline countered. "To judge."

"She's right you know," Rhiannon murmured, but the conversation had come to a forced end when Jeremy got back with the water.

Bonnie managed to put Luka in trance and what they found out shook Rhiannon so deeply, she had to find an excuse to get out of there before she would break something. She murmured something about driving up to Damon's to let him know what they found out. Five minutes later she barged into the boarding house and almost tackled Alaric who was apparently on his way out.

"Oh hey Alaric, where's Damon?" she asked.

"In the study," I gotta go pick up Jenna. "I gotta go pick Jenna up. I'll talk to you tomorrow."

"Yea sure," she said walking to further into the foyer yelling: "Damon! Get your ass over here, we need to talk!"

Before she could hear Damon's very colorful response, she heard Alaric cry out in pain and when she turned around, a guy she'd never seen before smacked her across the face. She face-planted on the floor, and the last thing she saw before everything went black was Alaric down on the ground with a giant knife sticking out of his abdomen.

She wasn't out too long and she could feel someone tying her hands behind her back and dragging her to the study, then tossing her onto the couch. She looked at Alaric with horror but then realized he was wearing his ring. He'll be fine. Then she saw Damon chained to a wooden chair with a creepy-looking steel collar with wooden nail sticking out and prickling his neck.

"What the fuck?" she murmured under her breath. This was most likely going to get really ugly.

"Shut up," one of the men barked at her. "You're lucky you're a werewolf, or you'd end up just like your friend over here," he said nudging Alaric's body with his foot.

"Leave him be you dick!" she yelled at him trying to stand up, which wasn't an easy task with her hands tied behind her back, only to be shoved back by Jules.

"You really are lucky we don't kill our own," she snarled at her. "But I wouldn't push it if I were you."

Rhiannon was about to talk right back to her but was cut off my Damon waking up, wincing in pain. He also looked at Rick and his ring, looking moderately relieved, at least until he realized what deep shit they were currently in.

"Morning sunshine," the guy who attacked them said. "I saw this movie once, some torture porn flake. Anyway they had this collar device that was really cool, so I just modified it with some wooden nails," he said, wrapping the chains around his hands tightly: "And when I pull…"

Rhiannon though she was going to barf, this was totally fucked up. It wasn't so much the fact that this guy was torturing Damon in a really gruesome way, but that he seemed to enjoy himself a little too much. Probably for the first time in her life, she was rendered speechless.

"So I hear you have the moonstone," Jules said casually. Damon just rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Oh, if you only knew the irony of this moment right now," he said with his typical nonchalance in spite of the fact that his neck was ripped to shreds. "Let me tell you how this is gonna go. You're gonna torture me, I don't talk, someone loses a heart. Last time, it was your boy Mason," he spat viciously making all the wolves in the room furious.

"This time, it'll be you," Jules whispered venomously, nodding for the creepy guy to continue.

"You know what the great thing about bug shot is?" Jules asked couple minutes later. "Scatters through the body, maximum damage," she continued trying to scare Damon, but it obviously wasn't working. She pointed the shotgun at him asking: "Where's the moonstone?"

"Get over it honey," Damon said. "You're never gonna get it."

"You know, the bug shots may not do that much damage on you because of your pesky vampire healing," Jules started nodding towards the two guys standing next to Rhiannon. They picked her up and threw her down on the ground making her kneel in front of Damon. "But let's see if your little friend here can heal quickly enough."

"What happened to we're not killing our own?" she asked not able to hide the panic in her voice anymore.

"Well take it as your own personal contribution to the entire werewolf race sweetheart," the creepy dude torturing Damon said mockingly.

Rhiannon looked up at Damon and saw a genuine fear in his eyes. She may be a werewolf and possess the supernatural healing ability, but there was no way she could possible survive getting shot with a shotgun.

"This is your last chance," Jules said cocking up the gun holding it up to Rhiannon's head, who squeezed her eyes shut. "Where's the moonstone?!"

"Looking for this?" a nonchalant voice called out from behind causing them all jump up in surprise. Rhiannon looked over her shoulder and saw Elijah walking towards the couch causally with the moonstone in his hand. His face was calm and collected as ever, but his eyes were ablaze with fury, she'd never seen before.

He placed the moonstone on a dresser behind the couch, backing up and saying: "Go ahead, take it."

Rhiannon was curious whether they were seriously going fall for that and try to take the moonstone when the first one of the geniuses tried to blur towards it and take it right from beneath Elijah's nose. He tore the heart out of his chest before he could realize he was screwed, tossing his lifeless body on the couch. The two other guys tried to make a run for it, but Elijah was faster releasing them from their mortal coils.

Jules made a run for it and the dude that was torturing Damon was crouching somewhere beside them hiding his head in his jacket. Rhiannon might have even found that funny if she wasn't scared to death just a minute ago. She just slumped down on the ground, propping her head against Damon's knee to prevent herself from passing out from sheer relief.

Elijah strutted causally towards the creep asking: "What about you sweetheart? Hm?" He grabbed him by the jacket making him stand up. They guy was so freaked out he couldn't even look at him. "You wanna take a shot? No? Yes? No?" the guy just shook his head.

"Where's the girl?" Elijah asked. He had no patience left where this particular pack of wolves was concerned and wanted to kill every single last one of them. It seemed however that he would have to settle for the majority. At least for now.

"I don't know," Damon retorted.

Elijah looked down at him, then on Rhiannon and finally back at the guy saying: "Well, it doesn't really matter," before hitting him square in the face with his elbow and breaking his neck. He walked over to Rhiannon, picking her up from the ground and gently tearing the rope from her hands. She winced in relief trying to rub the feeling back to her hands that had become almost completely numb. He walked her towards the armchair and sat her down gently looking at her with concern, then walking up to Damon, breaking the heavy chains that were binding him to the chair as if they were nothing.

"You realize this is the third time I've saved your life now?" he said backing up, then turning around on his heel, he walked over to the dresser to retrieve the moonstone.

"Rhiannon," he said walking towards her and extending his hand to help her stand up. "I was hoping we could have a word, you and I."

She was still shaken and mute, but she took his hand and started walking towards the front door with him right beside her placing his hand on the small of her back. She turned around to see Damon looking at them quizzically.

She walked out and sat down on a mural across from the front door. She didn't feel like talking but she was willing to listen and for whatever weird reason, his presence calmed her down. She looked up at him waiting for him to start talking.

"Are you alright?" he asked brushing his fingers against a semi-healed bruise on her left cheek. That felt really good and before she could stop herself, she leaned into his touch. Then she flinched realizing what just happened and looking down, she murmured: "Yea, just a little rattled, but I'll be fine. Thank you."

"I'm glad to hear that," he said sitting down on the mural beside her. "I'm sorry I upset you last night."

"Well you saved my life today so…" she murmured not looking at him. Technically, she was still upset, because not an hour ago, Luka in fact confirmed that Elijah planned to kill Elena in the sacrifice all along. "What did you want to talk to me about?"

"I want you to understand why exactly I cannot reveal my entire plan to you," he started. She turned to look at him, waiting for his explanation. He continued: "While I realize that you're a werewolf and therefore can't be compelled by a vampire, and I trust your ability to keep my secret, there are, unfortunately, several ways to get the information out of you without your consent. A witch powerful enough might be able to get it from you. There's also a torture and countless other possibilities that I would not rather think of. People we're dealing with are capable of doing really terrible things in order to get what they want and I don't want you get caught in the middle of this simply because I told you too much."

"I appreciate you trying to keep me safe Elijah, but I'm already in the middle of all this," Rhiannon countered making him smirk and shake his head in frustration.

"I realize that," he said looking into her eyes. "But you knowing the things I know would place you in even more danger than you already are, and I don't want that for you."

"And what about Elena?" she asked sharply. "You're still going to let her die to get what you want."

"Not exactly," Elijah objected.

"Don't lie to me! Just stop talking like you care about what happens to me or my friends!" she yelled at him standing up abruptly, her vision sharpening as her eyes turned yellow in rage once again. She felt as if her heart was going to split in half. She'd never been so torn in her life and she didn't have the first clue what to do about it. She was crying now and she didn't give a damn about it anymore. He was still sitting on the mural taken aback by her abrupt change of mood.

"Rhiannon, I promise you that I'm telling the truth," Elijah said trying hard to stay calm himself. "Elena will survive this."

"How?!" she barked at him.

"All I can tell you is this, and I want you to listen," he said standing up and grabbed her by her shoulders. "Yes, Elena needs to die in the ritual, but I have the means to bring her back."

"Swear to me, you're telling the truth," she whispered looking into his eyes searching for any hint of deceit, but couldn't find any as he whispered: "I swear."

Upon hearing this, Rhiannon started crying even harder, this time from a relief. Elijah, who didn't expect this reaction, had no idea why she was crying and what to do to stop it. He hugged her cautiously, partially expecting her to try to claw his eyes out, but, surprisingly, she let him grabbing on the lapels of his suit jacket, so he wrapped his arms around her tightly, caressing her hair soothingly. It seemed like things between them were good once again.


	9. Chapter 9 - The Dinner Party

**CHAPTER 9 – THE DINNER PARTY**

It took a good half hour to calm Rhiannon down enough to convince her to get in the car so he could drive her home. Elijah still had no idea why she was crying so much after he told her he had a way to spare Elena's life contributing it to the fact that she'd been through a lot that day. He sensed there was more to it but didn't want to push her.

The drive to her house didn't take more than ten minutes, but within that time she managed to fall asleep so deep that he didn't have the heart to wake her, so he carried her to her room, where he put her on the bed and covered her with blankets after taking off her combat boots. He stayed there for a while watching her sleep, and then went back to his own apartment. He had a busy day ahead of him.

He was walking with Jenna along the old property lines, hoping to find the place of the witch massacre when Alaric showed up.

"Alaric Saltzman," Elijah addressed him after Jenna went to her car for some more reference. "You're one of those people on Elena's list of loved ones to protect."

"Yea, so is Jenna," Alaric retorted.

"You don't have to be jealous. I don't really pursuit younger women," he said although didn't manage to do so with a completely straight face. It also wasn't entirely true considering the young werewolf that had occupied his mind ever since he got to Mystic Falls. He wasn't exactly pursuing her either so… Rick however didn't seem amused at all.

"It's a joke Rick, lighten up," he said walking past him patting him on the shoulder. After they were done, they went to the Grill to grab a lunch.

"Oh look, there's Jenna with her new boyfriend," Elijah heard Damon say teasingly.

"Stop being a dick," he heard Rhiannon chide him with a hint of an emotion he couldn't quite puzzle out. Could it be… jealousy? No, he was making assumptions. _Snap out of it Elijah!_ he scolded himself.

"Stop being melodramatic," Damon bit back waving at them saying: "Hi!"

"Hey guys!" Jenna waved back and walked towards them closely followed by Elijah. As he got closer he could hear Rhiannon's heart racing. What was going on with her?

"So I hear you two had quite the meeting of historical minds today," Damon continued causally. Elijah dismissed that with a polite smile and looked over at Rhiannon sitting next to Alaric making her blush wildly. She had never reacted in such manner before. Something was definitely up.

"Yea, I guess you can say that," Jenna said.

"Well as much as I'd like to continue this, I - I've got papers to grade," Alaric chimed in throwing some change on the table.

"No, you know what?" Andie started. "We should continue this. Let's have a dinner party!"

"Uuu, my girl, full of good ideas," Damon chirped way too casually. "I'll be happy to host. Say tonight, maybe?"

"It's good for me," Andie joined in. "Jenna?"

"Nah, I don't think tonight—" Alaric started but was cut off mid sentence by Jenna saying: "Yea, I'm free."

"Rhiannon?" Damon asked way too innocently. Elijah knew he was inviting her only to try and distract him. Damon, although often reckless, was very intuitive and sensed there was something going on between him and Rhiannon.

"I… umm, sure, why not?" she mumbled, genuinely surprised.

"It'd be a pleasure," Elijah said smiling and looking at Rhiannon.

"Great," Damon said getting up. "I'll see you all tonight at say eight o'clock at my place. C'mon honey, you need to go back to work and I got some shopping to do."

They all scattered and Elijah was left with Rhiannon who was still sitting in the booth, picking at her salad, clearly lost in her thoughts.

"Do you mind if I join you?" he asked her making her almost jump out of her skin.

"Yea, sure, sorry, I thought you left with the others," she said sheepishly.

"Don't worry about it," he retorted. "So I don't suppose you know what Damon's up to."

She snorted in response. "Sadly, Damon is about as much open with his plans as you are. All I know that something's up for sure. They stopped talking the second I sat down."

"I figured as much," he said smiling again. "So can I pick you up tonight at seven fifty?" he asked making her choke on her soda.

"Um, yea, that'd be nice, thanks," she mumbled embarrassed and started to get up as well. "I gotta go now, but I'll see you then."

"Alright," he said watching her get out of the booth and make her way out of the Grill. She was acting strange indeed. He was sure though that it didn't have anything to do with what Damon was up to. Well he was going to find out soon enough.

It was seven thirty and Rhiannon was freaking out. She woke up that morning not remembering how she got into her bed and absolutely exhausted. The last few days were a total emotional rollercoaster and she'd never felt so confused in her life. Yesterday, however, she realized that part of her confusion stemmed from the fact that she had feelings for Elijah. Elijah who apart from being sweet, gentlemanly and absolutely freakin' gorgeous, also happened to be a thousand years old vampire who may or may not wanted to sacrifice one of her best friends over a creepy ancient curse, so he could kill another thousand years old vampire for god knows what reason. Just saying that sentence in her head was too insane to handle.

She was sure he noticed her strange behavior today and that made her even more nervous. She was currently standing in front of her closet, trying to figure out what to wear. She knew tonight wasn't about her and Elijah and frankly, she was worrying herself sick with thoughts of what Damon was up to.

She chose her favorite black casual dress ( . %20Little%20Black% ), pairing it with black lacey tights, combat boots and leather jacket, putting her hair into a fishtail braid and keeping her make-up minimal with thin black cat-liner and some mascara. She was in the kitchen drinking water when Elijah knocked on the door, seven fifty sharp.

Elijah waited outside for Rhiannon to come out and the sight of her left him breathless. She looked gorgeous indeed.

"Rhiannon," he said as a greeting placing his hand on her shoulder blade and leaning in to kiss her cheek lightly watching for her reaction and he wasn't disappointed when her breath got caught in her throat and he heard her heart rate pick up an insane pace.

"Elijah," she said with a bated breath placing her hand on his shoulder in response.

"You look gorgeous tonight. Shall we?" he asked placing his hand on the small of her back and led her to the car.

"So how was your day?" he asked pulling out from the driveway.

"It was okay," she said looking up at him from the passenger seat. "Yours?"

"Pleasantly dull," he said with a small smile. The tension in the car was becoming more and more unbearable with every passing moment and Elijah almost crashed the car into the mural they sat on the night before when Rhiannon accidentally brushed her fingers against his hand on the armrest as he was pulling up at the Salvatore driveway.

He collected himself quickly and got out of car to open the door for her. He took her hand helping her out of the car and closed the door behind her but still not releasing her hand from his. She bit her lip looking down on her feet, then back up at him and it took everything in him not to grab her and kiss her senseless then and there. _C'mon Elijah, show a little restraint!_ he chided himself. If he only managed to carry out his plan, he'd have plenty of time to pursue her. However, it seemed that being able to focus tonight would be a much harder task than he anticipated.

"We should go inside," she mumbled almost incoherently and backing up from him a little.

"Yes, we should," he agreed smiling and placing his hand over her shoulder blades he guided her towards the door and rang the bell. "Let's just hope that your friends will behave themselves tonight."

"Yea," she replied, the knot in her stomach tightening even more.

"Good evening," Elijah said courtly as Damon opened the door.

"Thank you for coming," he replied. "Rhiannon, you look stunning tonight."

"Thanks," she said and brushed right past him making it straight to the kitchen.

"Please, come in," Damon encouraged Elijah who remained standing outside.

"Just one moment," he said brushing his finger against the door frame. "Can I just say that, if you have less than honorable intentions about how this evening's going to proceed, I suggest you reconsider."

"No, nothing dishonorable," Damon said innocently. "Just getting to know you."

"Hm, that's good," Elijah retorted coming in. "Because, you know, although Elena and I have this deal, if you so much as make a move to cross me I'll kill you and I'll kill everyone in this house. Are we clear?"

"Crystal," Damon mumbled in response.

The dinner was in full swing, Rhiannon sipping at her wine was sitting right between Elijah and Damon, clearly serving as a buffer and a distraction. Nobody from the adults questioned her presence or the fact that she was drinking in spite of being only eighteen. Well only for a few more days actually.

"I hate to break it to you Damon, but according to Elijah your family is so not the founder of this town," Jenna said pouring him some more wine.

"Mhm, do tell," Damon said.

"Well as I mentioned to Jenna earlier a faction of settlers migrated from Salem after the witch trials in sixteen-nineties," Elijah elaborated. "Over the next hundred years they developed this community where they could feel safe from prosecution."

"Mhm because they were witches," Jenna added laughing at the notion. Oh only if she knew the truth.

"There's no tangible proof there were witches in Salem," Andie objected.

"Andie's a journalist, big on facts," Damon chimed in.

"Well the lore sais that there was this wave of anti-witch hysteria that broke out in the neighboring settlement," Elijah continued, sipping on his wine and glancing at Rhiannon from time to time. "So these witches were rounded up and they were tied to the stakes in the field together and burned. Some say you could hear the screams for miles around as they were consumed by the fire. Could you pass the…"

"I wouldn't repeat this to the historical society though," Rhiannon chimed in making people around the table chuckle and Elijah raise an eyebrow at her, looking amused.

"This is starting to sound little like a ghost story to me," John joined in the conversation making half the table roll their eyes in disdain.

"So why do you want to know the location of these alleged massacres?" Damon asked pushing Elijah's patience.

"You know, healthy historian's curiosity, of course," he retorted making Rhiannon snort into her wine glass inelegantly.

"Of course," Damon repeated and grabbing Rhiannon's glass he said: "Yea, I'm cutting you off."

"Whatever," she mumbled glaring at him warningly. The dinner was almost over anyway and nothing had happened yet, which made her all the more nervous. She knew Damon wasn't stupid enough to try anything in front of Jenna, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try anything. Her suspicion proved right when Damon said: "Does anyone care for some cognac? I have a bottle I've been saving for ages."

"Not for me thanks," Alaric said. "Nine bottles of wine is my limit."

"The gentlemen should take their drinks in the study," Andie suggested which only added to Rhiannon's suspicion that something was indeed about to happen.

"I have to say the food was almost as wonderful as the company," Elijah said throwing his napkin on the table and pushed aside Rhiannon's chair to help her stand up, offering her a small smile.

Rhiannon started putting glasses from the table on a tray after witnessing an immensely awkward moment between Rick and Jenna and then between Rick and John, when Rick's phone rang. It was Stefan getting him to stop Damon from whatever idiotic plan he had in mind and he made a beeline for the study leaving Rhiannon alone in the dinning room, confused and furious.

She sat down in her chair again and drank the rest of the wine straight from the bottle. She had no idea what was going on and she felt so helpless she thought she might start crying. Seconds later, Jenna was pouring them some coffee when Elijah emerged from the study and sat down next to her, giving her a reassuring smile.

"You look positively bored to death," he said jokingly.

"Nah, I've been through worse," she joked back although the knot in her stomach was almost giving her cramps at that point.

"So, I know this is a social thing," Andie started. "But I – I would really like to ask you some more questions about the work you're doing here."

"I'd love to answer them," Elijah retorted courtly.

"Great, well that's so great," Andie said joyfully. "Rick would you do me a favor and grab the notebook out of my bag?"

"Elijah, did John tell you he's Elena's uncle slash father?" Damon asked giving John a death glare that made Rhiannon shift on her chair nervously.

"Yes, I'm well aware of that," Elijah answered.

"Of course she hates him so there's absolutely no need to keep him on the endangered species list," Damon elaborated making Rhiannon snort in genuine amusement. She didn't like John at all. He made it very clear he wasn't happy that a werewolf living under the same roof as his daughter.

"What I'd like to know, Elijah, is how you intend on killing Klaus?" John asked ignoring Damon completely and making Rhiannon wince inwardly.

"Gentlemen there are few things we should probably get clear right now," Elijah started in a tone of voice that suggested his patience had run out. "I allow you to live solely to keep an eye on Elena. I allow Elena to remain in her house living her life with her friends as she does as courtesy," he said glancing at Rhiannon sternly, telling her to keep her mouth shut as he continued: "If you become a liability, I'll take her away from you and you'll never see her again."

"Okay," said Andie as she returned back, oblivious to the tension that reigned around the table. "My first question is when you got here to Mystic—" the rest of her question was cut off by Rick stabbing Elijah in the back with an ancient looking dagger making everybody at the table jump up. Elijah was screaming in pain as his skin faded into that grayish color Rhiannon had seen before in that abandoned house. She was crying hysterically and trashing around in Damon's grip as her vision sharpened as her eyes turned yellow in shock and immediate sorrow that followed.

"Now get rid of him, before Jenna comes back with desert," Alaric snarled at Damon, who let go of Rhiannon. She turned around and ran away to the study before anyone could stop her and picking up the most expensive bottle of alcohol she could find, she threw it into one of many bookshelves, then slumped down to the ground crying hysterically.

Elijah woke up on a dirty ground in what appeared to be a cellar of some sort and he was furious. He briefly considered killing every single person in the house like he promised but when he sneaked to the study and saw Rhiannon pinning Damon against the bookshelf, her eyes yellow with fury. He couldn't help but feel that twinge of satisfaction upon seeing that his (although temporary) demise was met with such strong emotional reaction from the young werewolf. He wanted to comfort her and tell her he was alright, but he had other things to tend to since it would appear that this little arrangement with Elena had outlived its usefulness. He decided it would be much easier to take her away from them for the time being and disappear from Rhiannon's life at least until this business with his brother was finished.

He managed to locate her and arrived to the lake house in a record time. She tried to negotiate with him again but there was no way of convincing him to renew the terms of their deal. It turned out she was well aware of that when she stabbed herself forcing him to agree to her conditions once more. When he finally convinced her to let him heal her, he ended up with the dagger in his heart. Again.


	10. Chapter 10 - The Last Dance

** This chapter is a little shorter than usual, but I'll make up for that in the next one I promise. Feedback is very much appreciated **

**CHAPTER 10 – THE LAST DANCE**

Rhiannon was moping. Big time. She wanted to go to the lake house with Damon to help and convince Elijah to not go on a murder spree, and somehow ended up wolfsbaned on the couch in the Salvatore study. When she woke up, Stefan and Elena were back, Elijah daggered in a cellar and Damon made it very clear that if she tried to undagger him, he would break her arms.

She was in her new room at Salvatore boarding house recapping everything that went horribly wrong since they daggered Elijah two days ago. Katherine got out of tomb and took residence at Salvatore's setting everyone's teeth on edge. The Martin witches of course retaliated for Daggering Elijah which cost both of them their lives. Katherine ended up in Klaus's paws after double-crossing them with Isobel, who first kidnapped Elena only to set herself on fire couple hours later and let her go, leaving Elena with only one biological parent. Serves them all well for crossing Elijah, Rhiannon thought to herself uncharitably. He had an actual plan whereas they were just running around like headless chicken.

Next day she decided to skip history and came to school to grab lunch with Elena and Bonnie and help them prep the gym for decade dance after. Then Dana came over to them saying that this _totally_ hot guy named Klaus wanted Elena to save him the last dance. That _totally_ freaked them out and they headed back to the Salvatore house.

"So we go to the dance and we find him," Damon stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Really? How're we gonna do that?" Stefan objected. "We don't even know what he looks like."

"Something tells he he's not going to be sixteen and pimply," Damon retorted.

"He could be anywhere at any time," Stefan continued. "He compelled someone in school. Guess it's not as safe as you guys thought, huh?"

He was interrupted by Alaric knocking on the door and coming in. He stopped dead in his tracks looking at Rhiannon as if he were seeing a ghost, but it was only for a split second before he snapped out of it.

"Are you alright Alaric?" she asked, a little weirded out.

"Yea, I'm fine, just tired of everything that's going on," he mumbled.

"I need you to put me down as a chaperone for the dance tonight," Damon stated oblivious to the awkwardness between the two. "Klaus made his first move."

"Okay, so we find him and then what?" Elena asked.

"Yea, what's our plan of attack?" Rhiannon added folding her arms across her chest.

"Me," Bonnie stated matter-of-factedly. "I'm the plan. He has no idea how much power I can channel. If you can find him, I can kill him."

"That's not gonna be that easy," Alaric interjected. "I mean, he's the biggest baddest vampire around."

"Alaric has a point, I mean what if he –" He didn't continue the rest of his sentence and ran towards Bonnie vamp-speed and she sent him flying across the room with a casual flick of her hand.

"Damn girl!" Rhiannon cried out trying really hard not to laugh.

"Well I was impressed," Stefan joined in, looking like he had a problem keeping his laughter at bay as well.

"It doesn't matter if he's an Original," Bonnie said walking towards Elena. "I can take down anyone who comes at me. I can kill him Elena. I know I can."

"Well I guess we're all set," Rhiannon said casually. "Tonight, Klaus's ass is going down."

She was in her room, getting ready for the dance. She put on her light green dress with a crazy pattern, putting her hair into a high braided ponytail to recreate one of the famous Twiggy look.

Half-hour they were meeting up with Bonnie and very reluctant Jeremy in front of school. She was Damon's date for the night. They decided that the smarted way to play this was to search for Klaus in pairs. They were walking beside each other when they caught the conversation between Bonnie and Jeremy about her odds of surviving her fight with Klaus.

"Did you hear what I heard?" Rhiannon asked Damon stopping dead in her tracks.

"Yea, I'll talk to her later and find out what's that all about," Damon said reassuringly. "In the meantime try and not blab anything about this to Stefan and Elena."

"How am I supposed to do keep something like that from them?" Rhiannon snapped at him. "Bonnie is one of my best friends. This is a disaster!"

"Just keep your mouth shut and make sure Elena's safe until I talk to Bonnie," he bit back dragging her towards the gym.

"Fine," she snarled.

It turned out Klaus was one twisted bastard dedicating a song to Elena as they were all entering the gym.

"That was a lame, cheap shot," Damon said. "He's just trying to bait us."

"I know everyone here," Elena chimed in looking around.

"Maybe he's not even here," Stefan objected. "He just wants us to believe he is."

"It's a party people, blend! Let him come to us," Damon said grabbing Rhiannon dragging her along with him.

"Good idea," Bonnie agreed doing the same thing with Jeremy who mumbled something about not feeling like dancing but she didn't give him much choice in the matter.

"There's Rick," Damon shouted at Rhiannon over blasting music. "Let's talk to him."

"Special dedication, huh?" Alaric stated. "This guy's a little twisted."

"I'll say," Rhiannon mumbled looking around cautiously.

"I'm not impressed," Damon retorted.

"No?" Rick asked surprised.

"Let me know if you see anything out of whack," Damon instructed dragging Rhiannon to the dance floor.

"Can I just say that none of the things that happened during these past few days, didn't have to happen if just played by Elijah's rules," Rhiannon said before she could stop herself.

"Don't even start that," Damon shot her down. "You really trust him enough to bet Elena's life on it?"

"I do Damon," she said solemnly. "Not that it matters anymore. You really do have some major trust issues. Has anybody told you that yet?"

"Pfft, I lost the count by now," he retorted. "I'm gonna talk to Bonnie."

"Okay," Rhiannon said and walked towards the table with drinks, so she could eavesdrop on their conversation. Finding out that Bonnie will die for sure if she takes on Klaus, she decided to find Elena and tell her. There had to be another way.

Moments later she was walking outside with Elena and Bonnie.

"How could you not tell me?" Elena asked, upset.

"Because I knew how you'd react," Bonnie retorted.

"NO, no way! It's not an option!" Elena objected.

"It's our only option!" Bonnie countered.

"Then we'll find another way, okay?" Elena said.

"No Bon, I'm with Elena on this one," Rhiannon intervened. "There's gotta be another way. There is another way," she said looking at Elena pointedly. She got the message, loud and clear. Elijah was their only option.

"Bonnie, you're not dying to save my life," Elena pleaded.

"I have the power to save you," Bonnie objected. "If I don't use it and something happens that would kill me more."

"None of you is dying because of this stupid curse!" Rhiannon yelled out loud.

The argument continued for a while until Alaric ran up to them saying that Klaus got Jeremy. They immediately followed him into an empty hallway where he started slowing down chuckling under his breath.

"Where is Jeremy?" Bonnie asked panicked.

"I just had to get away from that dance," Alaric retorted, turning around on his heel nonchalantly. "Sixties… ugh… not my decade. And whose call was that anyway? I much prefer the twenties. The style, the parties, the jazz."

Something was wrong. He looked really creepy sending them smile that didn't reach his eyes though.

"Alaric," Elena started cautiously. "Are you on vervain?"

"Now why would you ask me that question Elena?" he asked. Rhiannon's instincts kicked in and she slowly stepped in front of Elena and right next to Bonnie.

"He's been compelled," Elena murmured.

"Nope, try again," Alaric said jokingly.

"What's going on?" Bonnie demanded, getting ready to attack.

"Okay, I'll give you a hint," Alaric said exasperatedly. "I am not Alaric."

"Klaus," Elena whispered in shock.

"Surprise," he chirped happily.

"What the hell?" Rhiannon mumbled.

"No, it's not possible," Elena said.

"Just relax Elena," Alaric/Klaus smiled. "I'm not here to hurt you or your werewolf friend over here. You're not on my hit list tonight. But you are," he said charging at Bonnie who sent him flying across the hall with her hand.

He got up, recovering really quickly, and saying: "Did I mention that I know a witch? You're gonna have to hit me a lot harder than that," he charged at them once again. Rhiannon realizing that purpose of this attack was to provoke Bonnie into using too much of her power, blurred to one of the lockers, tearing the door and smacking Alaric straight across the face. Bonnie then sent him flying into a shelf.

"Run," she yelled, ushering them both out of the hallway before slamming the door shut with her magic.

"What happened?" Damon asked walking straight up to them.

"It's Klaus, he's possessing Alaric's body!" Rhiannon said.

"What?!" Damon asked incredulously. "Elena, Rhiannon, go find Stefan! Now!"

They ran back to the gym that was still swarmed with people and it took them a while before they could find Stefan and get back to find Damon alone in a hallway.

"Where the hell is Bonnie?!" Rhiannon yelled panicked.

"She's doing what she has to do," he said calmly approaching them.

"What?!"

"Where is she?!"

"Stefan, let her do this," Damon said pointedly.

"Dammit Damon, where is she?!" Stefan yelled at him.

"This way!" Rhiannon yelled, hearing the crackling of electricity from the lunchroom.

They arrived just in time to find Bonnie standing over hunched Alaric, but before they could stop her, she slammed the door shut with her magic again. They were trying to pry the door open but with no effect and soon they witness Bonnie convulse and spasm, then slump to the ground, lifeless. The spell on the door was broken, Alaric/Klaus gone and Bonnie dead.

Rhiannon just kneeled beside her dead friend listening to Elena beg Stefan for help. She was sobbing hysterically, not able to do anything else, until Damon came. When she saw him, the fury that overcame her made her eyes turn yellow once again and she knew that if she didn't run, she would seriously hurt him. Granted she was no match for him, but in the short period of her being a werewolf, she learned that strong emotions such as this could trigger her transformation without the full moon. So she ran. She ran until she couldn't run anymore and somehow she ended up at the boarding house.

She got into her room and threw herself on the bed crying her eyes out. She fell asleep, exhausted until Elena came into her room, shaking her lightly.

"Rhiannon," she whispered. "Rhiannon wake up."

"What is it Elena?" she mumbled numbly.

"Rhiannon, Bonnie's okay, she's alive and well," she whispered happily.

"What?" Rhiannon whispered incredulously. "Tell me!"

Elena then told her everything Damon said to her earlier making Rhiannon sigh in relief and wow to herself to give Bonnie crap for scaring them like that later.

"Elena, you know that the only way to kill Klaus without either you or Bonnie dying is Elijah?" Rhiannon whispered to her urgently.

"Yea, I know. That's why I'm here," she whispered, barely audibly. "Stefan and Damon are both asleep, let's go!"

"Okay, let me just change first," she whispered back at Elena. She was still wearing her Twiggy outfit from earlier. She put on simple black skinny jeans, white T-shirt and her leather jacket and she was good to go.

"Are you sure you wanna do this?" Rhiannon asked hoping her friend wouldn't change her mind in the last minute. She was going to do it even if she would have to knock Elena out. Elijah was their only hope, not to mention the other reason why she wanted him back.

"Yea, I'm sure," she whispered and they both sneaked into the cellar where they kept Elijah's body.

"God I just hope he'll listen," Elena whispered leaning against the door frame.

"He will," Rhiannon whispered back reassuringly pulling the dagger out of Elijah's chest.


	11. Chapter 11 - The Reunion

**CHAPTER 11 – THE REUNION**

They've been waiting for hours until Rhiannon noticed one of Elijah's fingers twinge slightly. She knelt beside him watching him intently. Suddenly he started convulsing and gasping for air making both girls jump up in surprise.

"Elijah," Rhiannon whispered kneeling next to him. "Elijah."

"Brenna," he mumbled when he saw her, his eyes wide open in confusion.

"Elijah, it's me, it's Rhiannon," she whispered placing her hand on his chest.

"Oh my god," he whispered breathing heavily and then passed out again.

"I'm gonna grab my backpack and fill it with blood bags," Rhiannon whispered to Elena. "I think we're gonna need them."

She was back in matter of half-minute, backpack slung across her shoulders, just in time to witness Elijah's attempt to stand up.

"I can't… I can't breathe," he whispered panicking. This has never happened before. "What's happening to me?"

"I…" Elena gasped, not comprehending what was happening. Elijah tried to blur out of there but was stopped by some sort of an invisible barrier. Rhiannon rushed to him, slinging his arm around her shoulder.

"I can't… I can't be in this house," Elijah gasped, still breathless.

"He's not invited in Elena!" Rhiannon gasped in horror.

"Get me out of here," he pleaded and she did what he asked, blurring with him through the front door. Seconds later, they were standing outside and Elijah propped himself against the mural, finally being able to breathe.

"Are you alright?" Rhiannon asked just as Elena caught up to them. Upon seeing her, Elijah blurred over to her with a murderous expression on his face but was stopped by the same invisible barrier like before.

"What happened?" he asked, pissed beyond all recognition.

"We'll tell you, Elijah," Rhiannon walked up to him, placing her hand on his shoulder blade. "But not here."

Elena pointed at her ears, then upwards, signaling that there were too many supernatural ears that could hear them.

"Can I trust you?" she asked making Rhiannon face-palm inwardly. Did she really just ask him that?

"Can _I_ trust _you_?!" Elijah bit back pointedly making Elena give him the dagger as a symbol of peace. She then went to change quickly giving Elijah and Rhiannon couple of minutes together.

"Here, you look like you could use one of these," Rhiannon grabbed one of the blood bags and tossed it over to Elijah. "No offence."

"You're prepared," he said appreciatively, still not in a very good mood, but obviously glad to see her again. "How long have I been out?"

"Couple of days," she said looking at him as he all but devoured the blood bag instantly making him feel better. "I missed you," she whispered barely audibly. He heard it though and it made him smile.

"C'mon, let's go," Elena whispered coming out of the house. Few minutes and couple of blood bags later, they were parking in front of the Lockwood mansion. Rhiannon pulled the keys out of the ignition saying:" You look better."

"Where did you get the dagger?" Elijah asked turning over to Elena in the back seat.

"I'll tell you everything, but we have to work together Elijah," Elena retorted. "I need your word."

"Your ability to make demands has long passed," Elijah shot her down making Rhiannon look at him pleadingly.

"No demands," Elena retorted "I'm offering you my help and I n return I want yours."

"And why should I even consider this?" he deadpanned in return.

"For the same reason that you haven't killed me," Elena countered. "You need my help to kill Klaus and I need you."

"Please Elijah," she started. "You have every right to be pissed but you need to listen to what she has to say."

Their conversation was interrupted by Stefan calling and panicking. They let her deal with him and after she finished talking he gestured for her to hand over her phone, then turning over to Rhiannon asking her to do the same. She didn't mind giving up her phone but couldn't help but raise her eyebrow at him as she turned it off and handed it to him brushing her fingers against his, watching for his reaction. She was afraid he was mad at her as well, however his eyes crinkling in a small smile proved her wrong.

She was standing on the balcony of her new room recapping everything she learned today about the origin of the curse and about Elijah's family. They didn't get the full story but still it was a lot of information to take in and her head was pounding.

"Isn't it a little too cold for you to stand outside at night?" an all too familiar voice said from behind her making her almost fall over the railing.

"Don't do that!" she gasped at Elijah sitting in the chair with one leg propped on the other.

"I apologize for startling you," Elijah said, offering her a small smile. "But I didn't have the chance to wish you a happy birthday earlier."

This surprised her considering she didn't tell anyone, especially because of everything that was going on. "How did you know it's my birthday today?"

"I have my ways," he said smirking.

"I wonder why that doesn't surprise me anymore," she mumbled sheepishly.

"Well I was hoping to present this with a cupcake, but considering the circumstances, I'm hopeful you would not mind," he said standing up and retrieving a small velvet pouch from the inner pocket of his jacket. He walked up to her, kissing her on the cheek lightly, placing the little pouch into her hand and mumbling: "Happy birthday, Rhiannon."

She didn't know what to say so she just looked up at him, then down on the pouch hesitantly.

"Go ahead, open it," he encouraged her still standing so close to her. She did so and pulled out a gorgeous silver chain with a pendant the size of a quarter that had three diamonds in a shape of a crescent moons bound together on a circular black mineral she'd never seen before. It looked exactly like her birthmark. It was beautiful.

"It's the symbol of your werewolf bloodline," Elijah started. "Diamond is your birthstone and the mineral in the base is a black kyanite."

"It's so beautiful Elijah," she whispered in awe. "Thank you."

"You are most certainly welcome," he said offering her another one of his lopsided smiles. "That's not all though. Your ancestor, Brenna's mother, she was a powerful witch who hated to see her husband and sons go through the pain of transformation into wolves every full moon. She created a protective spell and bound it to the black kyanite to keep them from turning. It shielded them from the full moon and gave them control over their bodies once again. They could turn at will. I still have that spell in my possession and before your merry little friends daggered me couple days ago; I had Jonas spell this necklace with it."

"Wait; are you saying what I think you're saying?" Rhiannon asked incredulously.

"Yes," he said taking the necklace from her and stepped behind her and brushing her hair away he fastened it around her neck.

"You don't have to turn every full moon anymore. Not unless you want to. Also, any vampire that would try to hurt you would be no match for you anymore. Werewolves are naturally faster, stronger and their bite is lethal, and you can have all these benefits without the pain of transformation."

She was rendered speechless for what seem like a thousandth time that day. She couldn't breathe and the tears that had welled up in her eyes threatened to burst out, she couldn't keep it in anymore so she just threw herself in his arms, hugging him as tightly as possible. He was startled by her reaction at first, but recovered quickly and hugged her back with equal ferocity.

"Thank you, Elijah," she whispered into his ear, still not letting go.

"My pleasure," he mumbled stroking her hair lightly.

"I must be the worst person on the entire planet," she mumbled into his neck.

"Why would you say something like that?" Elijah asked genuinely surprised by this statement. He backed up a bit placing his hands on her shoulders, giving her a measuring look.

"Because in spite of all the terrible things I've witnessed you do over past couple of weeks I've known you, I'm pretty sure that I'm in love with you," she whispered barely audibly looking down on her feet.

"You're in love with me," Elijah repeated with a little gasp, clearly dazed a little. He promised himself to keep his emotions at bay. He had other things he needed to deal with before he could possibly think about living his life and pursuing his own happiness, but over the short amount of time the young werewolf standing before him had managed to break all his defenses. His walls were down and he was left vulnerable and without any control over his feelings whatsoever.

"I… well… yea," she mumbled incoherently, blushing wildly and starting to panic a little. She was so adorably awkward sometimes. She was about to run back to her room and off herself in sheer embarrassment but before she could get past him, he grabbed her and pressed her tight against him, caressing a stray hair from her face with his fingers.

"Music to my ears," he whispered as he leaned in and kissed her gently. She froze for a moment, but then melted into his embrace and kissed him back with passion that matched his, grabbing him by the lapels of his jacket. He snaked his hand into her hair while pressing the other against the small of her back and intensified the kiss for a moment before ending it with one last soft peck on her upper lip. When she finally opened her eyes, they were ablaze with that golden-amber shade and she gasped lightly, touching the skin under his eyes. Yes he could feel the blood rush and fangs extend in his mouth. Self-control was almost impossible where she was concerned.

"You may be the one celebrating birthday today, but you've given me a gift greater than anything I could've ever given you," Elijah whispered still not releasing her from his grip. "You have no idea how much I've wanted to hear you say those words. Once we deal with my brother and all this is over, I'll show you just how much this means to me. How much you mean to me."

"Music to my ears," she murmured with a smile plastered on her face, making him smile and kiss her forehead gently.

"You should go to sleep though, it's getting late," he murmured into her ear nudging her towards the inside.

"Like I'll be able to fall asleep after this," she mumbled. "Will you stay?" she asked hopeful that he would. She wasn't very eager to let him go, especially now that she knew her feelings were reciprocated.

"I can't," he said. "I have to get ready. Tomorrow's a full moon and I assume that now that Klaus thinks Bonnie is dead, he's going to want to break the curse."

"You think he's gonna do it tomorrow?" she asked.

"Yes," Elijah retorted tightening his embrace. "Which brings me to another thing I meant to discuss with you before we got distracted," he continued jokingly.

"Yea, sorry about that," she mumbled blushing wildly.

"Rhiannon, don't you dare apologize for that ever again," he said in a mock-serious tone. "Anyway, seeing as part of the ritual requires a werewolf sacrifice, I need you to stay put until all this is over. Knowing Klaus, he already has everything he needs, but if he didn't, I'm positive he wouldn't think twice of using you just to get back at me for trying to stop him from breaking the curse."

"You can't possibly ask me to sit idly by as you and all my friends put their lives on the line in order to stop Klaus!" she said incredulously. "You can't ask me that!"

"I should've known you wouldn't do that even if I begged you on my knees," he stated dryly. "Which I'm not going to do," he added after seeing her amused look.

"Very well," he said sighing in defeat. "You don't move from my sight, is that clear?"

"Crystal," she said with a sweet smile. Then asked: "Why would he use me though? He doesn't even know me and he can't possibly know there's something going on between u, can he?"

"No I wouldn't think so," Elijah agreed. "But he knew Brenna and I'm sure he remembers her and noticed your resemblance:"

"Right," she mumbled. "I forgot about the dead fiancée."

He noticed the hidden emotion behind that statement, jealousy and insecurity perhaps? He sighed walking towards he and capturing her face with his hands, lifting it up so she would look into his eyes, he said: "Rhiannon, I'm not in love with you because you look like her. Yes, the resemblance is what sparked my interest, but I fell in love with you and you alone."

She didn't hear anything else and crashed her lips against his once more. He returned the kiss, but broke it before things got out of control saying: "I'm going over to my apartment to grab everything we need for tomorrow and I'll be back soon."

"You changed your mind about staying here for the night?" she asked happily.

"Yes," he said smirking devilishly at her. "Between now and morning there's still plenty of time for you to get into some kind of trouble and I can't have that."

"Really funny," she bit back but couldn't keep a straight face.

"I mean it though, I will not have you come to any kind of harm," he said placing his hand on her right cheek and kissing her forehead again before vanishing into the cold night's air.

She went and showered, then got into her PJ shorts and oversized Johny Cash T-shirt and cozy hoodie, putting her hair in a messy bun before plopping on her bed happily. She took the pendant in her hands and admired it closely under the light of her nightstand lamp.

"You like your birthday present I take it?" Elijah asked leaning against the doorframe.

"I told you not to do that!" Rhiannon gasped after getting over yet another mini-heart attack.

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist," he said with a badly suppressed laughter in his voice making her throw one of the pillows at him. He caught it elegantly and tossed it aside sitting on the bed next to her, leaning against the headboard, stretching his legs over the duvet.

"Do you ever wear anything other than a suit?" she asked incredulously.

"I do," he said patting the pillow next to him and lifting the covers for her to climb under, he added playfully: "Not that you're going to find out tonight."

"Ha-ha," she retorted nudging him with her elbow lightly and snuggling next to him. He placed his arm around her, caressing her shoulder lightly, kissing the top of her head.

"Good night, Rhiannon," he whispered.

"Good night Elijah." she said. There were so many things she wanted to ask him, to learn more about him and his family, but that could wait. After dealing with Klaus, they would have all the time in the world.


	12. Chapter 12 - The Last Day

_**A/N: Thank you all for subscribing to my new story. I really hope you're enjoying it so far. Let me know what you think. Your feedback is very much appreciated :)**_

**CHAPTER 12 – THE LAST DAY**

The next morning Rhiannon woke up to feeling Elijah's lips brush against her forehead.

"I could definitely get used to waking up like this," she mumbled sleepily, stretching out on the bed making Elijah hum contently against her hair. "Good morning," she said and sat up on the bed giving him a quick kiss.

She was about to get up and head to the bathroom when she felt his grip on her arm as he pulled her into his lap and kissed her in a way that had her literally swoon. After a while he broke the kiss and murmured: "Good morning to you too."

"I should probably get ready," she said trying to pry herself out of his grasp but failing miserably. "C'mon, got a big day ahead of us... you know... evil younger Brother trying to break a freaky curse... does that sound familiar?" she jabbed smothered against his chest.

"You're ruining the moment," he said jokingly still refusing to let her go.

"Well, how 'bout we get this over with and then have as many moments as we want," she bargained.

Elijah just smirked and gave her one last quick peck on her upper lip before mumbling: "Deal."

"Tonight is a full moon," Elijah said standing behind and armchair Rhiannon plopped into unceremoniously. "We should assume that Klaus is prepared to break the curse."

"Elena said that The sun and the moon curse is fake," Stefan chimed in questioningly. "That's actually just a curse placed on Klaus."

"Klaus is a vampire born of a werewolf bloodline," Elijah elaborated. "The curse has kept his werewolf aspect from manifesting, but if he breaks it, he'll be a true hybrid," he continued looking down at Elena.

"Then why are we letting him break the curse?" Damon asked walking into the study. "We can kill him today, with Bonnie."

"Damon," Stefan said pleadingly.

"No," Elena retorted resolutely. "Bonnie can't use that much power without dying."

"I'll write her a great eulogy," Damon quipped making Rhiannon's blood boil with rage.

"It's not an option Damon!" she growled at him. "Bonnie's not dying and neither is Elena! How about you have a little faith in Elijah's plan?!"

"Alright, how do we break this curse?" Stefan asked trying to get the conversation back on track.

"Well, the ritual itself is relatively straightforward," Elijah started. "The ingredients, so to speak, you already know."

"The moonstone," Stefan chimed in.

"A witch will channel the power of the full moon to release the spell that's bound within the stone. After that Klaus being both werewolf and vampire will sacrifice one of each," he continued.

"And where do I fit into it?" Elena asked.

"The final part of the ritual," Elijah said walking behind Rhiannon to retrieve a wooden box. "Klaus must drink the blood of the doppelganger to the point of your death," he said making everybody in the room cringe at that idea.

"And that's where you come in," Elena retorted brushing off the news about her awaiting demise.

"This is an elixir I acquired some five hundred years ago for Katerina," Elijah retorted opening the small box and retrieving and ancient-looking bottle. "It possesses mystical properties of resuscitation."

"So I'll be dead," Elena said.

"And then you won't," Elijah finished putting the elixir back into the box.

"That's your plan?" Damon asked incredulously. "A magical witch potion with no expiration date? You wanna come back to life, what about John's ring?"

"Those rings only work on humans," Elijah shot him down. "The doppelganger's a supernatural occurrence, the odds are, the ring won't."

"I'll take those odds over your elixir," Damon bit back. "What if it doesn't work Elena?"

"Then I guess I'll just be dead," she said calmly making Damon look at Stefan incredulously and him sighing in defeat. Then he just stormed off.

"Do we know if Klaus has everything he needs to do this?" Elena asked looking at Rhiannon. "Does he have a werewolf?"

"Klaus has been waiting to break this curse for over a thousand years, Elijah said sitting on the armrest next to Rhiannon. "If he doesn't already have a werewolf, my guess is by tonight, he will," he continued looking at Rhiannon pointedly. She knew what message he was trying to convey_. 'Either stay put or don't leave my sight, it's all too dangerous'_.

Stefan then left to talk to Damon, leaving Elena in the study with Rhiannon and Elijah. He was still planted on the armrest next to Rhiannon who was playing with the hem of her T-shirt nervously. He placed his hand on her shoulder, rubbing it soothingly: "It'll all work out, don't worry."

"I know, but I can't help but feel a little nervous," she mumbled shooting a small smile his way.

"Oh my god, Rhiannon," Elena murmured. "Tonight's the full moon. I completely forgot about it. What are you gonna do? I should call Caroline, she'll show you the old Lockwood cellar Tyler was using or something."

"Elena!" Rhiannon had to raise her voice to get her snap out of her panicked rambling. "You don't have to worry about me. Elijah took care of that as well," she said looking up at him and smiling. "He had Jonas spell this necklace to shield me from the full moon so I don't have to turn unless I want to."

"But… what? Why…?" she was completely befuddled. She knew there was something going on between the two of them, but she had no idea it was that serious. "Wow," she whispered after she saw the look on Elijah's face as he was looking back at her friend, and came closer to inspect the necklace. "It's beautiful."

"Right?" Rhiannon smiled. "It'll all be alright Elena. I trust Elijah and I know you trust him too."

"I do," Elena said. "I just wish Damon would understand why I´m willing to do this."

"Why are you?" Elijah asked intrigued.

"I'm the key to breaking the curse," Elena said. "Klaus is here because of me. If I don't stop him, he's gonna hurt people. It's that simple."

"You know that there's a possibility this elixir won't work," Elijah said solemnly. "I don't wanna mislead you."

"I know the chance I'm taking," Elena said and Rhiannon hugged her tight, letting a few stray tears flow down her face.

They were interrupted by the sound of door being slammed shut and Jenna yelling at somebody to get out. They all hurried to the hallway and came to the sight of Jenna pointing a crossbow at much freaked out Alaric.

"What's going on?" Elena asked cautiously.

"It's me Elena, I swear. Okay?" Alaric pleaded. "He let me go. Klaus let me go.

"Proove it," Damon chimed in.

"Okay. Uumm, first night you and I spent together, Jeremy walked in right when I was—"

"Okay! It's him!" Jenna yelled, clearly embarrassed, and put the crossbow down.

"Why did he let you go?" Stefan asked.

"He wanted me to deliver a message," Alaric retorted looking glum. "The sacrifice happens tonight."

Upon hearing that, Rhiannon buried her face into Elijah's chest and he instantly wrapped his arm around her, caressing her shoulder soothingly with his other arm. Damon and the others were looking at them as if they saw a couple of ghosts, but he didn't care anymore.

"We should probably talk," he deadpanned sending them all a look that clearly said to mind their own business and walked towards the foyer with Rhiannon huddled under his arm.

They were all sitting in the foyer, talking about Alaric's time as Klaus while Elena left to go check on Damon. Rhiannon saw Elijah, who was leaning on the backrest of her armchair, tense and second later, Stefan was vamp-speeding upstairs.

"What happened?!" Rhiannon asked jumping out of her seat to run after him but was stopped by Elijah.

"Damon just fed Elena his blood," he said solemnly. "I think it's best if you stay out of this. It looks like it's going to get ugly. I guess I can go pack the elixir. Come with me?"

It turned out Elijah was right when a minute later, bruised and bloody Damon walked into the study to get a drink.

"Well it sounds like you won't be needing this anymore," Elijah stated, putting the box away. "Feeding her vampire blood rendered it useless."

"We both know that elixir wouldn't have worked anyway," Damon bit back bitterly.

"Your problem Damon is," Elijah walked up towards him. "You talk of good game, but you don't actually know anything. She'll never forgive you. And forever for a vampire is a very long time."

He started walking away extending his hand to Rhiannon, gesturing for her to come along. She obliged happily because she couldn't stand being in the same room as Damon. She was so mad at him for feeding Elena his blood that she probably wouldn't be able to contain herself and would end up biting his head off. Literally. So she grabbed Elijah's hand and walked out of the study, crying silently.

"What are we gonna do?" Rhiannon asked once they were back in her room.

"There's nothing we can do, I'm afraid," Elijah said solemnly. "Klaus won't let anything stop him from breaking that curse tonight and whoever tries to mess with his plan, they're as good as dead."

"Oh god, this can't happen," she muttered and more tears started rolling down her face. "I need to call Bonnie. Maybe there's something she can do."

"Call her Rhiannon," Elijah said, "But don't get your hopes up too much."

"I won't, but I also refuse to give up until there's absolutely no other option," she said. "I mean, on one hand I'm glad she'll come back, but…"

"She'll be a vampire," Elijah muttered with a strange edge to his voice. Rhiannon immediately understood and walking up to him, she kissed him gently. "I didn't mean it that way and you know it. I wouldn't mind Elena being a vampire if it was her decision. What Damon did wasn't right. I don't hate vampires. I don't give a rat's ass about some old grudge. Some of my friends are vampires and I fell in love with one as well."

Now it was his turn to kiss her. She told him exactly what he needed to hear and more. He snaked his hand into the hair on the back of her head and crushed his lips against hers. This time she responded immediately to his touch, pressing her body against his and caressing his face lightly. He whisked her up into his arms and she crossed her legs around his back as he walked them towards the bed. He put her down gently, never breaking the kiss, then placing his hands on each side of her head, he started kissing down her neck gently, enjoying the pulsing sensation of her veins underneath his lips. He felt the blood rush and his fangs extend in his mouth but kept kissing down to the center of her collar bone, making her moan and gasp from pleasure.

"Elijah…" she whispered under her breath snaking her hands into his hair. He looked up at her and her beautiful eyes were glowing yellow once again. Then her phone rang, breaking the mood effectively and throwing them back into the harsh reality of the night that laid ahead.

"Saved by the phone," Elijah muttered, breathing heavily and got off of her before he threw her phone out of the window and took her then and there.

"It's Damon," Rhiannon muttered, having trouble catching her own breath. "Hello?"

"_Klaus's got Caroline and Tyler Lockwood locked up in the tomb_," he said. "_He's planning on using them in the sacrifice._"

"_WHAT?!_"Rhiannon yelled and jumped out of bed making Elijah freeze dead in his tracks as he listened to their conversation.

"How did this happen?" she asked.

"_No idea,_" Damon quipped. "_But I'm headed there now, so don't worry. Just stay put. The last thing we need is Klaus getting a hold of you instead_."

"Don't worry about me, Elijah's not letting me out of his sight," she retorted making the vampire in front of her scoff lightly. "We'll be heading to the witch house shortly."

"_Alright_," Damon said. "_I'll see you there_."

"You should probably put some pants on," Elijah said after she finished the phone call. He was right, considering it was late afternoon and she was still in her pajama shorts. "I'll be downstairs."

Rhiannon changed quickly into a pair of dark denim skinny jeans and Led Zeppelin muscle tank, laced up her black combat boots and grabbed her black leather jacket before following Elijah downstairs. He was waiting in the foyer, leaning against the fireplace mantle.

"Ready?" she asked making him turn around and smile at her.

He smiled at her, the prospect of his future free of his brother's tyranny and full of her vibrant smile filling his head. He started walking towards the door and grabbed her hand. Kissing it lightly, he said: "Let's get this over with."


	13. Chapter 13 - The Birthday

**CHAPTER 13 – THE BIRTHDAY**

It's been about two months since everything went to hell for Rhiannon and everybody else in the Mystic Falls. She was stumbling back to her truck after howling through the night in forests of the Rockies. She managed to find the parking lot within ten minutes and crawled inside huddling into her sleeping bag. As she fell asleep she dreamt of the last few days in Mystic Falls that haunted her dreams.

_ "The sacrifice is completed in stages as the full moon sets," Elijah elaborated further as he helped Rhiannon to get out of the car putting his hand on the small of her back protectively as he lead her inside the witch house. "First a werewolf is killed, then a vampire and then finally the doppelganger. Once Elena dies, the curse will be broken and Klaus will become a hybrid."_

_ "So when do we attack?" Alaric asked, walking just a few steps behind them. _

_ "Elena's death will activate his werewolf side," he continued, squeezing Rhiannon's hand as she slipped it into his. Listening to this couldn't be easy on her. "He'll be vulnerable during his transformation. That's when Bonnie comes in."_

_ "And you're sure Bonnie will survive this?" Stefan asked._

_ "If she can deliver him to the brink of death, I will finish the job myself," Elijah said reassuringly looking at Rhiannon. She felt she would throw up if she spoke, her nerves getting the best of her, so she just shot him a small smile. Then Stefan's phone rang. It was Damon. They all turned to watch Stefan talk to his brother and when they saw he turned around whispering "oh my god" under his breath, they knew something went horribly wrong._

_ "What's happening?" Rhiannon asked, practically crushing Elijah's hand with hers. Thank god he was indestructible._

_ "It's Jenna," Stefan whispered, horrified. "Klaus has her and he's going to use her as a vampire in the ritual."_

_ "Oh my god," Rhiannon whispered backing up slowly. Elijah was only able to blink with surprise and put his arm around Rhiannon to prevent her from tripping over him. "What are we gonna do?"_

_ "I… what?" Alaric whispered incredulously. "We, we gotta tell Jeremy. He needs to know what's happening," he mumbled, dazed as he started towards the house._

_ "Wait I´ll go with you," Rhiannon shook herself out from her shock and followed Alaric inside. _

_ "You realize this is our only chance to end Klaus?" Elijah said solemnly. He actually liked Jenna, but he wasn't going to let that get in the way of his plans. _

_ "I can't let Elena lose anybody else," Stefan whispered with tears in his eyes. "There has to be another way."_

_ "Unfortunately, there isn't," Elijah said with a slight edge to his voice. Seconds later, Rhiannon was coming out of the house with Bonnie._

_ "I told her," she mumbled and ran straight back to Elijah's arms. She felt like the only way she was gonna get through that night was to stay close to him and feel his reassuring touch._

_ "Why did he take Jenna?" Bonnie asked, barely able to contain her tears._

_ "A punishment for meddling," Elijah said solemnly. "He's a spiteful one, my brother."_

_ "Klaus was gonna use Tyler and Caroline," Stefan elaborated. "Damon rescued them."_

_ "Then we need to go!" Bonnie said. "Now, before Jenna's been sacrificed. I can kill Klaus myself."_

_ "Bonnie," Rhiannon started. "If you use that much power, you'll be dead. We've already been through this. It´s not an option."_

_ "Neither is letting Jenna die," Bonnie countered._

_ "Stefan would agree with you," Elijah chimed in making Rhiannon turn to look at him questioningly._

_ "We're gonna offer another vampire," Stefan said stepping forward. "One that he'd want more. Me."_

_ "What?!" Rhiannon cried out. "You can't be serious Stefan! That would wreck Elena!"_

_ "I think losing another family member would wreck her more," Stefan argued. "I can't let that happen. It´s my decision Rhiannon, please respect it."_

_ For a moment Elijah thought Rhiannon was going to attack Stefan, but she enveloped him in a crushing hug whispering: "Elena's got no idea how lucky she is she's got you in her life. I'm gonna miss you."_

_ When she finally managed to peel herself off Stefan, she started towards the house again, followed by Bonnie and Elijah. She went inside and sat on the couch, not able to contain her tears anymore. This was a nightmare. _

_ "Hey," Elijah whispered soothingly, crouching in front of her as he brushed the hair out of her face. "Everything's going to be okay. I promise."_

_ "I don't know what to do Elijah, I feel so helpless," she cried, finally looking at him._

_ "I know darling," he murmured cupping her face. "I'm going to help Bonnie locate Klaus and I'll be right back love."_

_ "Okay," she mumbled weakly. _

_ Moments later, he was sitting on the dusty couch beside her, rubbing her back soothingly._

_ "Elijah?" she mumbled out._

_ "Yes darling?" he said sitting up. _

_ "Why do you want to kill Klaus?" she asked, biting back tears. "I know Stefan and Damon wanted to kill each other so many times they've lost count, but they were never able to. What did he do to make you want to kill him?"_

_ "Klaus was not my only brother," Elijah said in a leveled voice. "I had siblings. Parents. I had a family. Over the centuries Klaus hunted them down one by one and he took them from me. He scattered them across the seas so the bodies could never be found."_

_ "Oh my god Elijah," she whispered, fresh tears welling in her eyes. "Now I understand why you're so hell-bent on killing your brother. You want revenge."_

_ "Sometimes there's honor in revenge too Rhiannon," he said smiling weakly. "But I promise you this, love. I won't fail you, or your friends."_

_ "Please end this Elijah," she whispered pleadingly._

_ "I will," he smiled and kissed her gently making her melt into his embrace. They stayed like that, cuddled on the dusty couch for another hour or two, watching John arrive with a box full of old Gilbert journals. _

_ After another half hour Damon, Alaric and Bonnie emerged from the basement._

_ "It's time," Elijah announced with an edge to his voice._

_ "Alright, let's go," Rhiannon stood up alongside him, mentally preparing herself for what was about to come and checking her jacket for a cell phone when she felt a needle prickle her neck and she instantly felt her knees go weak and head go fuzzy but before she could collapse to the ground, Elijah caught her, caressing her face lightly. He carried her bridal-style to the couch again, whispering: "I'm sorry for this my love, but I can't have you risk your life out there. Soon all this will be over and you'll have all the time in the world to make me pay for this," he added with that bloody smirk on his face. Then everything went black._

_ When she woke up, there was already light outside and Alaric was leaning against the doorframe._

_ "How're you feeling?" he asked when he saw she was awake._

_ "Drowsy, migrainish, royally pissed off," she elaborated propping her head on her hands. "They're not back yet?"_

_ "Nope," Rick retorted, clearly pissed too._

_ "It would appear I wasn't the only one left behind huh?" she mumbled trying to focus on her breathing in order to suppress the throbbing headache. She was going to make Elijah pay for this stunt. _

_ "Nope," Alaric said. "Jeremy and John are downstairs in the basement."_

_As if on cue, John walked up the stairs, closely followed by Jeremy. _

"_They should've been back by now," Jeremy said, worried._

"_Is the spell still effective?" Rhiannon asked, ready to run out of the house and go look for them when they heard the car park and minutes later, Damon walked in with unconscious Elena in his arms. Rhiannon jumped up from the couch to make a room for her._

_ "What happened?" _

_ "How is she?"_

_ "Where are the others?"_

_ It appeared that Damon left early to get Elena to safety, so he was as clueless as they were. The only piece of information he provided was that of Jenna's death. Half hour later, they heard another car. Rhiannon ran out to meet them when she was met with a very solemn looking Stefan and Bonnie. No sign of Elijah._

_ "What happened?" she whispered barely audibly and so afraid of the answer that she thought she might pass out. _

_ "Elijah…" Stefan said. "He uhm… he betrayed us."_

_ "What?! No! He wouldn't!" Rhiannon blurted out incredulously. "Stefan what happened?"_

_ "Klaus, he told him he still has his family," Stefan started and she understood immediately. "He promised to take him to them and then they were both just gone."_

_ "No…" she mumbled having just enough strength to walk out on the porch and sit on the stairs. If what Stefan said was true that would mean… he betrayed her too. He made her believe everything was going to be okay, made her convince everybody else to trust him and then he betrayed them all. And now Jenna was dead, and John was dead. How could she even look Elena in the eye after this? She felt the urge to get the hell out of the town as soon as possible. _

_ She stuck around for the funeral, even though she felt so guilty and heartbroken she knew the only way to get over this was to get lost, at least for a while. After they headed back to the house, she came up to Elena's room to talk to her._

_ "Elena I am so sorry," Rhiannon started. "It's all my fault. I convinced you to trust Elijah and…"_

_ "Rhiannon stop," Elena said sternly. "It's not your fault that Jenna died, neither is your fault that John sacrificed himself to save me and it's not your fault Elijah betrayed us. I chose to trust him, just as you did."_

_ "Thank you," Rhiannon mumbled as she hugged Elena tightly. "Still… I am really sorry that this happened to your family."_

_ "I need to get out of this town though," she continued making Elena sit up and look at her questioningly. "I need some time to think, to… to come to terms with what happened and… I really loved Elijah and… I also understand he chose his family over me but I hurt so bad right now that I feel like I'm gonna die if I stay here one more day. I'm sorry." _

_ "I understand Rhiannon," Elena whispered. "Probably better than anybody. Take your time, you'll always be welcome here you know that right?"_

_ "Thank you," Rhiannon smiled weakly and reached for the clasp on the necklace Elijah gave her for her birthday. "Would you mind holding onto this while I'm gone? I just… it doesn't feel right wearing it anymore."_

_ "Are you sure?" Elena asked. "I mean, without it, you'll have to turn and..."_

_ "Yea I know that but I'd rather turn every full moon than wear this constant reminder of him around my neck."_

_ "Alright," Elena whispered. "Take care." _

The following morning, she woke up to her cell phone ringing. It was Caroline. She spoke to her almost every week.

"Hey Caroline," she answered the phone sleepily.

"Hey there," she chirped cheerfully. "Long night?"

"Ha-ha, so how've you been?"

„Good, well ish, everything's slowly getting back to normal over here, the search for Stefan still continues," Carline retorted. "How about you? Still running around in Montana?"

"Yea, the national park is amazing. And huge, so I have plenty of room to run around without putting anybody into harm's way," she mumbled stretching out her sore limbs. She didn't mind the pain of transformation. She welcomed it, embraced it. She missed her friends back in Mystic Falls, but she wasn't ready to come back yet. "So are you already planning Elena's birthday party?"

"How did you know that?" Caroline asked incredulously.

"Caroline Forbes, how long do we know each other? The only time you sound this chipper is when you have a party to plan and since Elena's b-day's coming up, it wasn't that hard to guess," Rhiannon joked.

"Well since you brought it up, I really do hope you'll be coming back to celebrate with us," Caroline retorted making Rhiannon cringe.

"Care, I don't know," she said. "Wouldn't it be weird to come back just like that after I ran away two months ago?"

"Rhiannon Petersen," Caroline started, mimicking her serious tone from earlier. "You know Elena loves you and she will be really happy to have you back. We all would."

"I…,"

"No, no. I'm done talking about it. You're coming at least for Elena's party. End of discussion," Caroline cute her off making her laugh silently.

"Okay, I'll come," she sighed defeated.

"Well look who came back," Damon said smiling as he opened the door and found Rhiannon standing outside.

"It's good to see you too Damon," she beamed back hugging him tightly.

"I wondered how long it would take you to admit you can't live without me and come running back," he joked pouring her a drink.

"Don't flatter yourself buddy," she joked back plopping down on the couch. "I missed your sorry ass though."

"Of course you did," he smirked draining his glass in one swig.

"So what's new with Stefan? Is he still MIA?" she asked.

"Yea, we've had a few leads over the summer, but that's about it," he said pouring himself another one. "So you're back for good or?"

"Aww, did you miss me too?" she teased. "Yea, I'm back for good. That is if you'll have me. I don't feel like living with Gilbert anymore, especially not after what happened to Jenna.

"Yep, your room is exactly how you left it," he said. "Now if you'll excuse me, Andie's waiting for me at the grill."

"Sure, have fun," she retorted finishing her drink.

"Hey, Rhiannon," Damon called from the front door. "I'm glad you're back."

"So Elena has no idea, you're back?" Caroline asked incredulously as you sat at they table in Grill with Tyler.

"Nope, I came in late last night, plus I want to surprise her," she said looking through the menu.

"Well you can come to the house with us and help us set up," Caroline offered.

"I'd love that," she said.

After they finished eating, they headed to the house to get everything ready. Seconds later, Elena came back and Rhiannon barely made it around the corner so she wouldn't see her.

"Hey Caroline, I'm here," she called out walking into the foyer. "Please tell me you're not inviting half of the high school to my party."

"Oh c'mon, it's your eighteenth birthday, plus we have one more reason to celebrate tonight," Caroline chirped looking at Rhiannon who was sneaking behind Elena barely able to hold back laughter.

"What are you talking about?" Elena asked, confused just as Rhiannon got close enough to cover her eyes singing "Surprise!"

"Oh my god!" Elena cried out and jumped Rhiannon hugging her so tight she was certain she was gonna knock wind out of her lungs.

"Easy there birthday girl," Rhiannon rasped out.

"Sorry, I'm just really glad you're back," Elena said. "We all missed you."

"I missed you too guys," Rhiannon said. "So I head Damon went out with Rick to follow some new lead you got him. That's good news."

"Yea," Elena agreed. "I just wish Damon would be as enthusiastic as you are. I feel like I have to fight Damon every single time we get a lead on Stefan."

"Maybe he doesn't wanna find him," Tyler said sorting through the beer.

"Tyler!" Caroline cried out.

"What?" he argued. "He's into you. Isn't he?"

"The only reason Stefan left with Klaus was that he could save his life," Elena retorted. "Trust me, Damon wants to find him."

"But you kissed him," Tyler continued. "That probably screwed with his head."

"Tyler!" Caroline cried out again, this time mortified.

"Oh wow, you neglected to mention that over the phone," Rhiannon chimed in, trying to suppress laughter, but failing miserably.

"Yea well, it was a very eventful night," Elena pleaded.

"From what I hear it certainly was," Rhiannon joked making Tyler snicker.

"Look yes, I kissed him, but it was a goodbye kiss. I thought he was gonna die," Elena said in defense. "Look I got a missed call from Bonnie. I'll be right back."

"Just because I tell you things doesn't mean you're allowed to know them!" Caroline chided Tyler as soon as Elena walked out of the door. After he left and Elena came back, they continued setting up the house for the party.

"So how're you dealing with… you know?" Elena asked cautiously.

"You mean with Elijah stabbing us in the back and then he got stabbed in the back and ended up in a box without any chance of finding and freeing him without getting my heart ripped out by his lunatic younger brother?" Rhiannon asked casually. "I had plenty of time to deal with it over the past two months. It still hurt, but I'm okay now. How about you? The not knowing must be killing you."

"Yea, it is," Elena admitted with a sigh. "But I'm not planning on giving up either."

"And you shouldn't," Rhiannon agreed with her. If she had the slightest chance of getting Elijah back, she would've followed it until her last breath. She was still royally mad at him for crossing them, but on the other side, she couldn't blame him for wanting his family back. "Oh by the way. Would you mind bringing me my necklace back? I think it'd be wise to start wearing it again so I don't wolf out on you the next full moon."

"Sure, I'll bring it over tonight," Elena said squeezing her shoulder.


	14. Chapter 14 - The Hike

**CHAPTER 14 – THE HIKE**

„Uuugh, god just kill me," Rhiannon pleaded when Elena showed up in her room at the Salvatore boarding house way too early for her hangover to subside.

„No can do," Elena chirped handing her the largest cup of steaming hot coffee she managed to find. "I was wondering if you'd like to go on a hike to Smoky Mountains today."

"Honestly that's the last thing I would wanna do right now but I'm sensing this isn't just about the fresh air, am I right?" Rhiannon mumbled sipping on her coffee and praying for a quick death.

"Yea, Stefan called me last night," Elena started making Rhiannon instantly more awake. "Last night after I got home from the party. He didn't say anything but I asked Sheriff Forbes to track the origin of the phone call. It came from Tennessee. So I talked to Alaric and he told me Klaus's been tracking werewolves all summer long and Tyler helped me figure out where in Tennessee they would most likely gather on the full moon so—"

"Wooaah, hold on," Rhiannon cut her off. "So you're thinking about tracking down a pack of werewolves on the full moon? Is that what you're saying?"

"C'mon, we'll be out of there before the moon is full," Elena pleaded making Rhiannon want to shake her back into sensibility.

"Elena, do you hear yourself right now?" she started. "I understand you want to find Stefan, but this is way too dangerous. And I'm not talking about me, I'm talking about you. It almost near to impossible to outrun one werewolf and we're talking about the entire freakin' pack! Not to mention freaky lunatic hybrid and his side kick who went off the rails and murdered Damon's girlfriend last night."

"Fine, you don't wanna go? It'll be just me and Alaric," Elena deadpanned storming out of her room.

"God, why me?!" Rhiannon whined heading for a quick shower. This was going to be one hell of a long day. After she showered, she got dressed in black jean shorts, white wife-beater and black and green flannel shirt. She paired it with her hiking boots and put her hair in a high messy bun, then headed out the door to tell Damon about Elena's latest adventure.

"You gotta be kidding me!" Damon yelled out in frustration and for a moment she thought he was gonna bite her head off.

"Yea, I'm hungover as fuck and all I desire is to trudge through a freakin' forest in this heat," Rhiannon deadpanned.

"Just let's go before Elena gets herself and Rick killed," Damon muttered as his phone rang. It was Rick telling him what was going on.

"So you really think Stefan's off the rails for good?" Rhiannon asked Damon sipping some more coffee from her travel mug as they drove in an insane speed to catch up with Elena and Alaric.

"Yep," Damon retorted. "Saw it happen before. It took him decades to get back on track and this is way worse than it was in 1920's."

"Oh wow, I mean I get that Elena doesn't want to give up on him, but what she's doing today is just stupid and reckless," she added.

"Yea, you didn't have to come with me though, I could've handle this on my own," Damon said.

"I know you could, but you're going to a mountain range full of werewolves on the full moon. You need all the help you can get," she countered.

"True, but what about you? I mean you're a werewolf too, you'll we wolfing out with the rest of them," Damon said worryingly.

"Not exactly," she retorted making Damon look at her surprised. "This necklace… Elijah gave it to me on my birthday, the night before the sacrifice. It's spelled so I don't have to turn unless I want to. Guess I forgot to tell you before."

"Yea, well that's handy," Damon retorted. "Wait it was your birthday two months ago? Why didn't you tell anybody?"

"I didn't feel like that was important given everything that was going on at the time," Rhiannon said looking out the window. "Hey, I know Elena's gonna get sacrificed on the altar of fire, but it's my birthday today, jello shot?"

Damon didn't say anything to that, just snickered under his breath. "Well happy belated birthday then."

"Thanks."

"Damon?!" Elena yelled from the river, dripping wet. "How are you even here?!"

"Well try and guess!" Rhiannon called out to her coming from behind Damon.

"You sold me out?!" Elena cried incredulously.

"You think I'd let you go to a mountain range full of werewolves on full moon only with Alaric?" Rhiannon asked incredulously. "No offense Rick."

"None taken," he muttered.

"Get out of the water Elena," Damon said dispassionately.

"If I get out of the water you're gonna make me go home," Elena retorted crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yea because I'm not an idiot, like you," Damon bit back.

"Right now you're both acting like idiots," Alaric chimed in.

"You gave up on him Damon," Elena muttered.

"I didn't give up on him Elena," Damon countered. "I face reality. Now get out of the water!"

"No!"

"What's your big plan Elena?!" Damon asked, clearly pissed, and started down the river bank. "You're gonna walk through a camp site full of werewolves, roast a marshmallow and wait for Stefan to stop by?!"

"My plan is to find him and help him," Elena pleaded backing up further into the water. "Damon this is the closest we've been to him since he left. I'm not going home!"

"Klaus thinks you died when he broke the curse," Damon reasoned. "That makes you safe. This? This is not safe!"

"I'm not leaving before we find him," Elena insisted.

"It's a full moon tonight Elena!"

"Then we find him before then!" Elena wasn't giving up. "Damon please!"

"He's gonna back down isn't he," Rhiannon muttered leaning on the tree watching the exchange between the two.

"Yep," Alaric muttered grabbing water from his backpack.

"So they're both out of their minds," she sighed.

"So it would seem," Rick agreed.

"Sun's about to set," Damon toned nervously.

"I can see that Damon," Elena retorted.

"Just sayin'."

"Relax, the moon doesn't reach its apex for a while," Rhiannon chimed in. "I'll tell you when's the time to really worry. I'll feel it."

"Well how convenient, we got out werewolf alarm clock set then," Damn bit back.

"That's hilarious," Rhiannon shoved him into his shoulder.

"Yep, I know," Damon smirked.

Then there was a horrid looking man, bleeding from his eyes stumbling through the thick flora towards them.

"Stay where you are," Alaric snarled pointing his crossbow at him.

The guy seemed really out of it though and he just muttered "vampire" before lunging at them. Damon was quicker though, pinning the guy against the tree. He went rabid though, not giving up on trying to bite Damon's head off so Rhiannon blurred over there to help him. Then Elena unlatched a grenade throwing it to Damon which could mean only one thing. It wasn't vervain, it was wolfsbane. Well shit. She managed to dunk away so she didn't get the full load but the grenade still burned her quite badly.

"Oh my god Rhiannon, I'm so sorry!" Elena muttered worried as she was pouring some water on her thigh to neutralize the wolfsbane.

"Ugh, don't worry about it, okay?" she muttered through her gritted teeth. "Next time a little heads up would be nice though."

They were tying the knocked out hybrid out.

"These ropes aren't gonna hold him for long," Damon stated. "What else do we have?"

"Here, Rick take these,"Elena said soaking the ropes in vervain. Damon wasn't listening and winced in pain as soon as he touched the ropes.

"I said Rick," Elena retorted making Rhiannon snicker.

"Alright, that's the last of the vervain," Rick stated. "We don't have enough stuff to hold him."

"I don't think we're gonna make that ridge before the full moon," Rhiannon said clutching her gut. She didn't have to turn but she still felt very uneasy and this uneasiness only grew bigger as the full moon set on the night sky.

"If we get him to talk, we don't have to," Elena countered.

"How? I mean, he's clearly not in his right mind," Rhiannon retorted, but Elena didn't listen and approached the hybrid. Before she could try to wake him up, he started to convulse and they heard bones cracking. He was turning.

"C'mon Elena, it's time to get the hell out of here!" Rhiannon grabbed her hand.

"But I don't understand, it's not even full moon yet!" she objected grabbing her backpack.

"Me neither! Must be a hybrid thing!" Rhiannon retorted turning around to Damon who was currently trying to hold the guy back. "Damon c'mon! We gotta go!"

"Damon we gotta get out of these mountains now!" Elena joined in, grabbing his shoulder and finally managed to peel him off the screaming werewolf.

They were running through the woods for quite some time when Elena tripped and fell but before she could get back up on her feet, she was face to face with a wolf.

"Elena don't move!" Alaric instructed.

"Well shit," Rhiannon muttered and jumped in front of Elena, barring her fangs and snarling at the wolf, her canines extending and her nails turning to claws. The beast however didn't seem to be willing to back down. Then Damon whistled and called out: "Here doggy doggy" catching its attention and vamped away, the wolf following him.

"C'mon let's keep moving!" Rick said helping her get up.

"We can't leave Damon!" she protested.

"He can handle himself. Let's move!" Rick insisted.

"No if he gets bit he'll be dead. I'm the reason he's out here!" Elena countered.

"I'm the reason he's out here!" Rhiannon chimed in. "Now go with Rick. I'm gonna stay and help Damon. Move!"

She was running through the woods, trailing the faint scent of the werewolf thanking god for her heightened senses when she found Damon struggling against the same guy from before, him getting closer and closer. She ran towards them but stopped dead in her tracks as she saw Stefan vamp over there and rip the guy's heart from his chest.

"Fancy meeting you here," Damon jabbed dispassionately.

"What part of don't follow me anymore got lost in translation Damon?" Stefan said exasperatedly.

"You might wanna take it up with your girlfriend," Damon bit back. "If you donvt want her chasing you might wanna stop with the late-night phone calls."

"I didn't call her," Stefan muttered weakly.

"Sure you didn't," Damon retorted. "She's not gonna give up on you."

"Well she has to," Stefan said. "Because I'm never coming back. Now why don't you get her home? See if you can keep her there this time."

"We'll try our best," Rhiannon called out walking out of the shadows. "Hang in there Stefan," she added walking past him and squeezing his shoulder.

Couple hours later Rhiannon was getting out of shower again checking her now fully healed thigh in the mirror. Ever since she got back into the car she's been thinking about how Elena was willing to risk everything to get Stefan back and whether there was something she could do to get Elijah back from Klaus's grasp. She was helpless, pissed and confused, but one thing she knew for sure. She never stopped loving him and she missed him terribly.

_I love you Elijah, just hold on._

Elijah's never been daggered this long before. The longest was those couple of days he spent daggered in the Salvatore cellar. It was excruciating. He was forced to relive all the horrible memories he's had over and over again. This time over it was worse. It wasn't just like watching it from afar like the time before that. This time it felt way too real and the bad moments were entwined with the good ones which made this experience all the more confusing and painful. The only way he was gonna survive this was to focus on her. Her angelic face, her warm smile and the way she felt cuddled against his body.

_Rhiannon, I need you. I love you._


	15. Chapter 15 - Thy Hybrid

**CarlyLynn &amp; tate4eva****: **_**Thank you all for your feedback. I really appreciate it :)**_

**CHAPTER 15 – THE HYBRID**

The rest of the week went by without any major drama, except for the fact, that Damon and Elena were arguing more than usual. It had something with Elena trying to change him, "keep him in check" and honestly, Rhiannon tried her best to stay out of it. She didn't need to get her head bitten off trying to fix things.

Before she knew it, it was a night before the start of their senior year and they were crouching in one of the classrooms, setting up fifty mouse traps when Matt barged in setting off all of the traps scaring the hell out of them and himself.

"Oh c'mon! Seriously?!" Caroline cried out. "Do you know how long this took us to set up?!"

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm not setting this up again," Rhiannon mumbled sitting on top of one of the chairs.

"Forgot about senior prank night huh?" Tyler chimed in.

"Clearly," Matt retorted.

"How could you forget? We've only been waiting for this since like a freshman year!" Caroline said incredulously.

"Yea Matt, if I'm doing this, you're doing this," Elena joined in.

"I'm kinda surprised any of you are doing this," Matt countered.

"Caroline's making us," Bonnie chimed in.

"We're about to be seniors," Caroline started in a serious tone of voice. "These are the memories that will stay with us forever and—"

"If we don't create these memories now then what's the point of it all," Elena and Rhiannon toned together.

"Go ahead, make fun, I don't care," Caroline laughed.

"You're all lame," Tyler jumped in heading for the door. "And I've got ten more classrooms to prank."

"Where are you going?" Bonnie asked as Elena followed behind him.

"To superglue Alaric's desk chair," Elena answered matter-of-factedly making Caroline beam at her. "Making memories."

"I love you," she toned after her.

"Well, Bonnie and Matt are gonna TP the swimming pool and I better get on with setting these up," Rhiannon said.

"I thought you said you're not doing it again," Caroline toned appreciatively.

"Well I changed my mind after your inspiring speech," Rhiannon joked.

After she was done setting up the mouse traps she tiptoed out of the classroom and decided to find others to see what else needed to be done but there seemed to be nobody left. The whole school was vacant which was weird to say the least. She decided to try the gym and as she pushed open the gym door she was stopped dead in her tracks by the sight of Klaus standing over Tyler's unconscious body and Elena, Bonnie and Matt looking shocked and helpless. There was another blonde girl who she'd never seen before. Before she could react in any way she was grabbed by Klaus.

"Well tonight just keeps getting better and better," he muttered, having her in a choke-hold and walking right back to the middle of the gym. "I was hoping you'd show up tonight love. Saves me the trouble of hunting you down."

"What the hell do you want from me?" she rasped out.

"Well as I was explaining to your friends earlier, every time I try to turn a werewolf into a hybrid, they die in a horribly gruesome way during the transition," Klaus started. "And since it is Bonnie's witchy interfering that caused the problem, she's gonna be the one to fix it. Now, I think Tyler's life might be a motivation enough, I think we can up the ante, don't you think?"

None of it made sense until Klaus bit into his wrist and force-fed her his blood. Then he placed his hands on either side of her head and snap. Everything turned black.

When she finally woke up, she was laying on a lab table in a chemistry classroom and she felt like she was dying. Her head was pounding, her neck hurt like bitch and if she had anything in her stomach she was sure it would not stay there for long. It felt like the first time she turned into a wolf, only thousand time worse.

"What the hell happened?" she groaned, trying to sit up.

"You're in transition love," she heard Klaus mutter from the corner of the room making her jump up.

"You turned me into a hybrid?!" she cried out.

"Not quite yet love," he retorted. "There's one crucial step missing in the process of transition and if your friend Bonnie doesn't figure it out, you and Tyler will die."

"What?!" she cried out again. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Why, I'm angry and when I'm angry I lash out at people who are responsible," Klaus retorted as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Elijah forgot to mention that?"

"How—" she started but she realized he must know about them. "What was that about hunting me down? Why would you do that?"

"As I say, I like to punish people who disappoint me and Elijah did just that when he tried to kill me, so consider this my way of retaliating," he explained. "If Bonnie is unsuccessful and you die, Elijah will suffer. If you don't die and become a hybrid, well… he will suffer either way. I'll make sure of that."

"And you wonder why your siblings hate you," she muttered grabbing her head in her hands, wincing in pain.

"Oh they hate me for thousand more reasons none of which concern you," Klaus said standing up and grabbing her arm, dragging her out of the room, then opening door to another classroom with Caroline, Tyler and the unknown blonde.

"Rebekah love, keep any eye on this one and make sure she doesn't cause any problems," he said shoving her into the room.

"As you wish brother," she said and walked Rhiannon to one of the chairs. "Sit down love, you look awful."

"Well thanks for your concern," Rhiannon bit back, her words dripping with sarcasm.

"You really look and sound like her," Rebekah muttered fascinated.

"You knew my ancestor?" Rhiannon asked, trying to find out as much as possible in spite the fact she felt like she was gonna have a heart attack.

"She was my best friend back in the time," the Original sister started. "I don't know how much you know about our history."

"Not much, Elijah was going to tell me more, but then he ended up daggered by your lunatic of a brother and in the box," Rhiannon retorted.

"Ah yes, so I'm correct to assume he fancies you?" Rebekah asked.

"I guess you could say that," Rhiannon muttered looking down on the ground. "Not that it matter anymore since I'm most likely dead.

"I wouldn't be so sure about that love," Klaus said walking in with two vials of blood.

"This is Elena's blood," he said handing it to her. "Drink it. Or else you truly will be dead."

"What?"

"There's no time for explaining love, just drink it if you want to live," Klaus urged. "Same goes for you Tyler."

She looked at the vial hesitantly, then on Tyler who looked about as freaked out as she felt at that moment. She nodded at him and they both drank the dark sticky liquid. It was disgusting and she felt like throwing up and then her heart started beating even faster. She started screaming as she felt as if her head as gonna split in half and then she felt the fangs extend in her mouth and her vision come blurry, then really sharp. Then she collapsed on the ground and suddenly she felt the rush, the bloodlust and she felt that weird feeling of invincibility. Then all her emotions came crushing down on her and she felt like laughing and weeping at the same time. And then Klaus and Rebekah were gone and she was left with Tyler and Caroline.

She made her way out of the school. Everybody was gone so she tried to call Damon. He wasn't picking up. She dialed him about thousand more times and then headed for the boarding house to try and figure out where the hell he was. Well he sure was nowhere to be found. She was about to freak out when he finally called her back and said he found Elena in the hospital and he's bringing her home. Knowing Elena's safe and Klaus gone, she finally let herself go and cried out everything she'd been trying to hold back ever since she got out of that school. She decided to wait for them in the study and couple minutes and couple glasses of bourbon later, she saw Damon walk in with Elena in his arms. She was pale as a ghost. He sat her down and covered her with a blanket, pouring her some bourbon too.

"Are you alright?" Elena asked Rhiannon.

"Yea, well all things considered. I made it out alive, I guess that's that," Rhiannon muttered. "Are you alright?"

"Not really," Elena whispered with tears in her eyes. "Stefan's really gone this time. I watched it happen. After everything we went through to get him back, to help him. He's just gone. Where were you Damon?"

"I shouldn't have left," he muttered apologetically. "I promise to you, I will never leave you again."

"Well isn't this cozy," Stefan called out leaning against the pillar, making everybody jump up.

"What're you doing here brother?" Damon asked.

"Well last I checked I lived here," Stefan retorted pouring himself a drink. "Klaus is gone but he's asked me to keep watch on you until he returns," he said pointing towards Elena. "From now on you're under my protection. By all means carry on."

"Well that was awkward," Rhiannon muttered.

"Thanks for stating the obvious," Damon bit back.

"Anytime hon," she smiled at him sweetly and headed out. "Wait, where do you keep the bloodbags? I guess I'm gonna need them from now on…"

"Wait what?" Damon asked.

"She's a hybrid now," Elena elaborated. "Klaus fed her and Tyler his blood, then snapped their necks. After Bonnie found out the solution, he's given them my blood, completing the transition."

"Well I'm glad you're okay," Damon said. "Even though it means we're never gonna get rid of Klaus now."

"Yea, thanks," she quipped back. "I'm gonna head for the bed now. It's been one hell of a night.

After she showered she climbed into her bed with a bloodbag in her hand not sure how she felt about it all. She felt like she was about to freak out so she decided to call Caroline for help. She knew the basics of what it meant to be a vampire, but she didn't feel like she could do it by herself. All this made her miss Elijah even more. If he were here, he would have helped her through all of this. Furthermore he wouldn't have let this happen to her.

"Here we are," Caroline chirped. "Senior year."

"Did anyone else think that this should feel slightly more empowering?" Bonnie asked making Rhiannon snicker.

"Okay so prank night was a bust," Caroline objected. "But we are accepting it and we are moving on."

"You're right," Bonnie agreed. "I mean why should I let the fact that my boyfriend is seeing ghost of his dead girlfriends hinder this experience?"

"Yes!" Caroline agreed. "And why should I let the fact that my boyfriend was turned into a hybrid put a damper on otherwise fabulous day?!"

"Exactly," Rhiannon joined in. "And why should I let the fact that my boyfriend, or whatever he was is laying daggered in the box and his lunatic brother turned me into a freaky hybrid stop me from enjoying the hell out of our last year in high school?"

"That's the spirit!" Caroline toned.

"Today is our anniversary," Elena muttered from behind them. "Technically, Stefan and I met on the first day of school last year."

"Yea, you win," Caroline said solemnly.

"Are you sure you wanna be here?" Bonnie added.

"Yea, we could ditch the first day, go to your house, order take-out and watch a bunch of movies," Rhiannon offered. Quite frankly, that's all she's been thinking about that morning.

"No I have to be here," Elena objected. "I have to put it behind me. New year, new life."

"Yea, sorry if I was too pushy with inviting myself over to your house but get this, Rebekah, or Barbie-Klaus as Damon likes to call her is living in the boarding house," Rhiannon informed them.

"What?!" all three cried out.

"Yea, apparently Klaus ditched her and she's got a thing for Stefan from the past or something so she waltzed right through the door and almost took my room," she elaborated further.

"So what about Stefan?" Elena asked. _So much for putting it behind her_, Rhiannon thought.

"Well he's still at the boarding house and he's still being a emotionless dick, that's all I'm gonna tell you," Rhiannon said.

As the day went by, Stefan showed up at school to watch over Elena and make everybody else miserable in the process. Elena decided it'd be best to lock him up until they figure out a way to undo the compulsion. They were all gathered in Alaric's classroom talking about the plan.

"I'll lure Stefan away from the bonfire," Elena started. "Then when he's distracted—"

"I'll shoot him," Alaric chimed in.

"Can't Bonnie just joo-joo him or something?" Damon asked.

"We're trying to keep Bonnie out of this," Rhiannon jumped it. "There's no guarantee that Stefan won't hurt her now that his humanity is off."

"Caroline are you covered?" Elena continued.

"Yes, I'll make sure the old Forbes jail cell is prepped and ready," she said.

"You're forgetting a key player here," Damon cut in. "Rebekah? Wherever Stefan goes the blond pony-tail tends to follow."

"Which is why it's your job to keep her away," Elena instructed.

"How?" Damon asked. "She's an Original. Last time I checked we're out of daggers."

"So then preoccupy her with your charm," Elena countered. "Might have better luck finding the dagger."

"Are you ever not gonna be mad at me Rick?" Damon bit back.

"Doubtful," the history teacher retorted.

"Sorry I'm late," Tyler said walking in. "What's going on?"

"We need you to raid you'r mom's vervain supply, enough to keep Stefan down for a while," Rhiannon instructed.

"You can't do that to Stefan," Tyler protested.

"Trust me Tyler, it's in his best interest," Elena insisted.

"But it's not in Klaus'," Tyler objected.

"But Klaus is the bad guy Tyler," Caroline explained as if Tyler had a stroke and forgot everything up to that point. "And why are you acting like some freaky hybrid slave minion."

"Uh-oh," Damon muttered standing up and walking slowly towards the fighting couple.

"Klaus made me who I am Caroline," Tyler continued. "I owe him everything."

"Oh boy," Damon muttered grabbing one of the vervain syringes.

"Okay can we cool it on the commentaries please?" Caroline asked irritated.

"What's going on?" Rhiannon whispered.

"I'm just gonna go," Tyler muttered and turned around as Damon vamped towards him and got him with the syringe.

"What are you doing?!" Caroline cried out.

"He's been sired," Damon said.

"He's been what?" Rhiannon asked.

"Sired," Damon repeated. "He feels loyal to Klaus because it was Klaus' blood that created him.

"Loyal how?" Rhiannon asked on the edge. If this was going to happen to her too she was gonna rip her own heart out.

"He'll seek acceptance from his master. It's truly rare," Damon elaborated. "Maybe not so much in hybrids."

"Well I don't feel any of the things you described," Rhiannon said. "I wonder why is that."

"So how so I fix him?" Caroline asked.

"Get a new boyfriend," Damon bit back.

"Don't be a dick," Rhiannon chided him. "C'mon Caroline, I'm gonna help you get Tyler home."

"Alright, thanks," she said gratefully grabbing Tyler's arm.

After she was leaving the Lockwoods she decided to head home. It seemed like they had the plan all figured out and nobody was counting on her being there. Plus she could feel they didn't trust her and she thought she was lucky she didn't end up vervained/wolfsbained like Tyler.

_I guess this is what Klaus had in mind when he said he'll make sure Elijah will suffer even if I survive the transition_, Rhiannon thought to herself. She felt normal however and the idea of being Klauses little minion made her sick.


	16. Chapter 16 - The Homecoming

**CHAPTER 16 – THE HOMECOMING**

"Wow so Stefan's old friend Lexi showed up and told you how to deprogram him?" Rhiannon asked incredulously.

"Yea," Elena said. "He's locked up at the old Forbes jail cell."

"So what's next on the vampire rehab check list?" Rhiannon asked sipping at her coffee in the Salvatore kitchen.

"We have to starve him more but that's not what I'm here for," Elena said. "The cave we discovered is covered in symbols that tell the story of the Original vampires."

"What? And I'm learning about this now?" she cried out.

"Yea, sorry about that," Elena muttered. "We were busy taking pictures of all of it and trying to make sense out of it. You wouldn't be able to get inside anyway. It's vampire proofed."

"God this sucks," Rhiannon muttered.

"How're you dealing with all of that?" Elena asked with genuine concern.

"I'm doing what I can," she retorted. "I mean, my emotions are still all over the place, the bloodlust is sometimes difficult to handle, but if I get my fill regularly I can manage to go about my day without ripping innocent people's heads off so… And I don't think I'm sired like Tyler which is weird, but you won't catch me complaining about that. I'm still trying to figure out why though. Klaus seemed certain that I would be."

"Well maybe I can help with that," Elena said in a hushed voice. "We both want to learn as much about the Originals as we can so I say let's go straight to the source."

"Rebekah?" Rhiannon muttered. "Well it just so happens that I'm supposed to go dress shopping with her after school so I can ask her around."

"Wait what?!" Elena asked incredulously.

"Well yea, I mean we live in the same house so I can't avoid talking to her," Rhiannon defended. "Plus she's not that bad once you get through that tough bitch act. It also might have something to do with me being the carbon copy of her bestie from thousand years ago."

"Right," Elena said in a weird tone of voice.

"Let's just go to school," Rhiannon said trying to ignore the weird vibe. "I'll help you find out everything you want just try not to press Rebekah too much. She's got quite the temper and even with me as a bodyguard she'd be able to rip you to shreds while doing her nails at the same time."

Elena of course totally ignored Rhiannon's advice when she brought up the vampire hunter making Rhiannon face palm inwardly.

"So how'd you ended up friends with the latest doppelganger?" Rebekah asked Rhiannon browsing casually through the rack filled with cocktail dresses.

"I've known her since I was a kid. Our parents were really close but then we moved to Seattle when I was ten. And now I'm back here and my parents are in New Zealand," Rhiannon elaborated.

"It's funny because in Brenna's time, there was this girl Tatia, the original doppelganger if you will, and they hated each other. Or to be precise, Tatia wanted to seduce both Elijah and Klaus and Brenna was not having any of it. I'm sure you already know they were bound to get married, Brenna and my brother," Rebekah said.

"Yea I know that bit," Rhiannon retorted. "So you're saying Elena's bloodline comes as far as yours and mine?"

"Yes, and her bloodline also has a rich history of wedging itself between the members of my family. It all started with Tatia, who wasn't satisfied with Klaus' affections so she set out to win Elijah too but without success. He only had eyes for one," she added looking at Rhiannon with what could be described only as nostalgia.

"Wait so if Klaus loved Tatia how could he just tried to mercilessly sacrifice two women who look exactly like her in order to break the curse?" Rhiannon asked.

"Well as I'm sure you already know, Nick is a vindictive bastard. He learned about Tatia's intentions and he resented her for that. With Katherine and Elena, well he saw them both just as living reminders of a woman who broke his heart all those centuries ago," Rebekah elaborated.

"It must be exhausting to hold a grudge for so long," Rhiannon pondered. "Wouldn't it be just easier to let it go?"

"It would, but unfortunately Nik isn't programmed that way," Rebekah retorted. "C'mon, we can continue this conversation when we get back to the house. You can even invite Elena if you want to help her with her little fact finding mission."

"Yea I'll do that while you compel those poor girls for your runway show," Rhiannon joked making the Original sister snort at her inelegantly.

Later in the boarding house, the music was blasting and Rhiannon was opening third bottle of champagne when Elena walked in. She blurred towards her whispering pleadingly: "I got Rebekah to talk so please don't fuck this up by trying that girl power struggle crap from earlier."

"Okay," Elena replied looking around weirded out a little.

"Hey what's up?" Rebekah called out walking from behind the corner.

"You invited me over to talk," Elena retorted.

"Alright girls," Rebekah hollered. "Have at it."

And right there the half of the cheerleading squat walked into the foyer wearing various cocktail dresses.

"Alright now twirl please," Rebekah instructed further.

"You compelled your own private runway show?" Elena asked incredulously.

"I need a homecoming dress," Rebekah retorted matter-of-factedly. "So, pick one. Rhiannon sais go with the red. What do you think?"

"I'm not here to help you shop," Elena retorted looking at Rhiannon pointedly. "I'm here to talk about why you don't want me to wake up Mikael."

_Well so much for "no girl power struggle crap"_, Rhiannon thought to herself. Was Elena really mad at her for getting along with Rebekah? She's Elijah's sister and she didn't do anything to hurt her or her friends so what would be the point in being mean to her?

Rebekah was having none of it either vamp-running towards the nearest girl, grabbing her by her throat and barring her fangs at Elena saying: "I said pick one Elena."

"The red one," Elena said in panic.

"Now that wasn't so hard was it?" Rebekah said sending all the girls home, unharmed. Then she turned around on her heel grabbing her glass of champagne and walked up to Elena saying: "You do not threaten me. You will learn what I allow you to learn. Is that clear?"

Elena just nodded to that finally realizing that messing with a thousand year old vampire with anger issues probably wasn't the smartest idea. Rhiannon just shook her head and followed Rebekah upstairs. She was getting more and more tired of everybody's shit. She got used to be the odd man out and her being a hybrid seemed to alienate her from the group even more but she hoped they valued her at least enough to consider her advice. But that was clearly another delusion. Well she was done trying to help them since they clearly didn't want her help anyway. It was time to follow her own agenda and try to see if Rebekah could help her get Elijah back.

The afternoon went by and Rebekah got cooperative again, telling them the whole story of how her family traveled from Europe to the New World, how they lived in harmony with their neighbors and how that all went to hell when their youngest brother got killed by the wolves and how their mother – the Original witch – turned them into vampires in effort to protect them. She also elaborated how Rhiannon's ancestor Brenna fit into all of it. Hearing about how Elijah's heart got broken by the hands of his own very father made her want to weep for weeks.

After Rebekah kicked Elena out, her and Rhiannon were sitting in the foyer, talking and drinking through Salvatore liquor supplies. That was one of the perks of being a hybrid – her alcohol tolerance was sky high now.

"So you think there's any chance that Klaus would undagger Elijah any time soon?" Rhiannon asked looking into the fire.

"I really don't know," Rebekah retorted. "He might undagger him tomorrow, or in fifty years or the next time he needs something from him. You really do care about my brother don't you?"

"I do," Rhiannon muttered. "And I miss him terribly."

"Well I'm not making any promises but I'll see what I can do to convince Klaus to bring Elijah back," Rebekah said solemnly making Rhiannon smile genuinely, probably for the first time in months. Then they hear the door open and Elena walked in.

"I thought I told you to leave," Rebekah deadpanned. "Twice."

"How do you know that Mikael killed your mother?" Elena asked.

"Nik was there. He told me," Rebekah retorted.

"He lied to you," Elena said walking towards the Original.

"And how do you know that?" Rebekah asked, sarcasm oozing out of her words.

"The cave where you've carved your family's names is covered in symbols," Elena started. "the story of your family, how your parents arrived, how they made peace," she continued placing individual pictures at the table. Rhiannon jumped out of her seat to take a look. "The spell that turned you into vampires and this. This is the symbol for hybrid. It's the combination for the werewolf and the vampire symbol. And this is the one for your mother."

"Her necklace," Rebekah muttered.

"And this is the story of her death," Elena continued showing one last picture. When Rhiannon saw it she almost felt sick.

"The hybrid killed the Original witch," Rhiannon muttered.

"Not Mikael, Klaus," Elena pressed on.

"No, no he wouldn't," Rebekah said, but she didn't sound so sure anymore. The look in her eyes was pleading for them to say it wasn't the truth.

"Think about it Rebekah, she put the curse on him. Made it so that he would be the only one of his kind and then she rejected him," Rhiannon chimed in.

"With the werewolf gene comes aggression and violence," Elena continued. "When he turned, all of that was heightened. He killed her Rebekah and then he made up this entire lie about your father so that he wouldn't lose you."

"These mean nothing!" Rebekah yelled grabbing photos from the table and chucking them into the fire. "They're just stupid drawings done by stupid people who had no idea who my family was!"

"Then why are you so upset?" Elena pushed.

"Why are you doing this to me?!" Rebekah cried out. "I've done nothing to you!"

"Klaus killed your mother!" Elena retorted.

"Elena I think that's enough," Rhiannon tried to stop her, but as usual, she wasn't listening.

"He has a hold on you, on me, on everyone. He has for a thousand years. He have to make it stop!"

"Shut up! Just shut up! Don't talk anymore! Nothing!" Rebekah screamed throwing Elena against the wall grabbing her throat.

"Rebekah, calm down please!" Rhiannon pleaded but knew better than to try and get her off Elena. "Bekah please, just let her go!"

After a moment she released Elena from her grasp and slumped to the ground, weeping. It was a heartbreaking scene. Rhiannon just kneeled down beside her and put her arm around her shoulders. When she saw she wasn't going to rip her apart, she hugged her as tightly as she could, letting her cry, turning around to Elena saying: "Just go, I got this."

Rhiannon stayed on the foyer floor with Rebekah for two more hours before she stopped crying. After that she grabbed her around shoulders and led her to her room where she sat her on her bed while she went to fetch another bottle of bourbon. They drank through the night and sometime around 4am Rebekah finally passed out, exhausted.

_"Well Portland is fantastic once you get over all the whiny music and healthy looking people. It's literally a breeding ground for werewolves,"_ Rhiannon heard Klaus chirp into the phone making her sick thinking how many people's lives he managed to ruin with his creepy sire bond since he left.

"Your father's dead," Stefan said into the phone sitting in one of the armchairs in the Salvatore study where they all gathered. Rhiannon, Rebekah, Damon and Elena were standing over Mikael's daggered corpse.

_"What did you say to me?"_ Klaus asked, the shock from the news evident in his voice.

"Well my mistake, not your actual father, and not dead," Stefan continued. "Mikael, daggered. What do you want me to do with the body?"

_"First I want you to explain to me exactly what happened,"_ Klaus retorted.

"Well he wanted to kidnap Elena and use her as a bait but me and Damon managed to vervain him and found out he had a dagger on him so we gave it to Elena and she drove it through his heart," Stefan gave the rehearsed answer.

_"I wanna see him. I want to see his rotting body for myself," _Klaus snarled into the phone.

"Well, he's here," Stefan retorted. "Come by whenever."

_"If you're lying to me Stefan your compulsion will expose you so swear tome on your life that what you're saying is true,"_ Klaus insisted.

"It's true," Stefan said. "I saw it with my own eyes."

_"I want to talk to Rebekah,"_ Klaus continued, still not convinced.

"That's not a problem, she's right here," Stefan answered handing the phone over to Rebekah. Rhiannon stood right next to her rubbing her shoulder reassuringly and giving her a warm encouraging smile.

"Hello Nik," she muttered.

_"Rebekah, love. What's this I hear about Mikael's tragic run in with the dagger?"_ Klaus asked.

"It's true," she said. "He's finally out of our lives for good. I miss you. I'm miserable here."

_"I'll be home soon,"_ Klaus retorted, finally convinced.

"Good, I'll see you then brother," Rebekah said and turned over the phone adding: "He bought it. He's coming home."

"So when do you think is my best shot at getting Elijah back?" Rhiannon asked Rebekah as they were making final touch-ups to her make-up and getting ready for the homecoming.

"Well he's always carted us around wherever he went so your best bet would be to wait until he comes back here. It shouldn't be hard for me to figure out where he's staying. Once I know the address, I'll text you and you go get my older brother. I have to say, he's lucky to have someone who's looking out for him the way you do. After all these centuries of misery, he deserves to be happy. We all do."

"Thank you so much Rebekah, I know it's not easy for you," Rhiannon said hugging the Original sister once more. "I'm gonna get some blood bags ready. I'm sure he'll be starving. I'll be right back."

She met Elena who was on her way to talk to Rebekah. After filling her backpack with enough blood bags, she was headed to her room to check out her appearance once more. After all these months, she's gonna see Elijah again. She wanted to look perfect. She was wearing her navy cocktail dress along with the silver strappy sandals and decided to let her hair fall down in loose waves. Her make-up was natural with smokey brown eyes and blush pink lipstick. She looked good. She was ready and went to Rebekah's room to see if she was ready too only to find Elena stand over her daggered body.

"You didn't," Rhiannon snarled, her eyes turning yellow-golden with rage.

"Sorry Rhiannon, we had to," Elena pleaded. "You know Rebekah wouldn't go through with this plan. She's not capable of letting her brother walk into a certain death trap."

"And you realize she was my only way of finding out Elijah's whereabouts?!" Rhiannon yelled at her not able to contain her emotions anymore. "You ruined everything!"

"I'm sorry Rhiannon," Elena said. "But I'm sure we'll be able to find Elijah after Klaus is killed."

"You don't know that!" Rhiannon screamed out even louder. "He's paranoid. He's carting them around wherever he goes. Even Rebekah didn't know where they are! She was gonna find out tonight! I'm so done helping you! I'm fucking done! Every single time I help you, you just turn around and betray me!"

"Oh stop being so dramatic," Damon called out from the doorframe.

"You don't wanna mess with me right now Damon," Rhiannon snarled at him and as she tried to push past him, she ended up with another syringe in her neck. Again.


	17. Chapter 17 - The Reunion II

**CHAPTER 17 – THE REUNION VOL.2**

After the homecoming failure Rhiannon felt the burning desire to leave town for good, but there was still that slim chance that she might get Elijah back and she wasn't going to give up on him until there was absolutely no hope. Learning that the coffins with bodies of Elijah and rest of his family ended up in Stefan's hands didn't help to lift her spirits either. He's been acting like a lunatic lately and she was seriously worried about what he might do. There was no point in negotiating with him or Damon. They didn't give a damn about her or Elijah, at least not if there wasn't something in it for them.

Mystic Falls was crawling with hybrids and she did her best to avoid them or their master. She really didn't want Klaus to find out she wasn't sired to him in case he might feel obliged to find another, more terminal way to make Elijah suffer. So far it seemed like he'd lost his interest in making her life a living hell and she was hoping it would stay that way. That was one of the reasons she decided to stay out of everything that's been happening since the failed attempt of Klaus' assassination. She moved out of the Salvatore boarding house and decided to stay in a little B&amp;B until she would find her own place. Elena tried to apologize and make her stay but she was having none of it. She was done with them. Every time she agreed to help them she got screwed over in the process. She spent her days going from one apartment to another, looking for a nice place to rent and her nights drinking through Mystic Grill's liquor supplies.

Rhiannon finally found herself a cute three bedroom apartment that was already furnished in a style that matched hers. She was headed to Salvatore boarding house to pick up the rest of her belongings and walked in on Stefan punching Damon in a jaw. That was something she longed to do since the homecoming night so she went for it.

"Auu, what the hell?" Damon winced.

"You know damned well what that's for," Rhiannon snarled. "Should've done it the minute I woke up vervained in my room! Don't worry I won't be long, just came back for the rest of my stuff."

"Right, that," Damon muttered. "What if I told you I made it right?" he asked with that bloody smirk on his face as he pulled out one of the daggers from behind his back.

"What? Did you –" Rhiannon whispered with a lump in her throat.

"Yep," Damon retorted. "Now will you forgive me?"

"I might consider it," Rhiannon quipped back trying to contain her emotions but not managing to do so completely. She walked up to Damon punching him in the face once again. "However, if you screw me or Elijah over again, I'll do something much worse than punching you. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," Damon said walking over to the liquor cabinet and pouring them all a drink. "Here you look like you could use one of these."

Something was different. Elijah was once again in the middle of one of his nightmares but this time it wasn't so intense. It no longer felt like he was a part of the dream, or memory or whatever it was. It felt like he was watching it from a distance and it felt like that distance was growing bigger and bigger with every moment. And then he heard voices that didn't belong to that dream. Niklaus… and somebody else. And then he opened his eyes realizing he was in a coffin. That bastard…

He managed to get out of his casket unnoticed and tore the man's heart right out of his chest letting his lifeless body fall to the ground revealing Klaus' surprised face.

"So Niklaus," Elijah said dropping the man's heart to the ground walking towards his younger brother. Needless to say he was furious. "What have I missed?"

"Elijah," Klaus muttered, terrified.

"You look surprised to see me," Elijah stated wiping his hands off. "So it wasn't you that removed the dagger from my chest."

"You look like you could do with the drink," Klaus started. "And we have a lot to discuss so sh-shall we?"

Elijah had something different in his mind and when he finished wiping his hands clean he lunged at Klaus punching him square in the face then shoved him through the glass door.

"Easy," Klaus growled. "I just finished renovating."

The fight went on for quite a while until Klaus managed to take the dagger from Kol's heart and pinned Elijah against one of the coffins.

"Don't make me do this to you again Elijah!" Klaus snarled.

"Come on!" Elijah resped. "Use it! I dare you! Then you'll have Kol to deal with!"

That seemed to discourage him and he let go of Elijah saying: "Mikael is dead."

"What did you say?" Elijah asked ripping himself from Klaus' grasp.

"I killed him," Klaus whispered. "With his own weapon. He's gone Elijah, forever.

"Why does our family remain in these coffins?" Elijah asked pointing towards the caskets that were scattered around the room. "Finn for over nine hundred years, Kol for over a century."

"Because of Stefan Salvatore," Klaus explained. "He holds the one thing keeping me from freeing them. There are things you do not know about our past Elijah. Our mother's death. Things I never wanted you to know but I'm ready to tell you now. I only ask that you remember the oath of loyalty you once swore to me."

"What are you doing?" Elijah asked Klaus as he dipped the dagger into the ash and plunged it back into Kol's heart.

"Always and forever," Klause continued. "I need you to stand by my side. Be my brother. Help me destroy Stefan and I promise you our family will be whole again."

He spent the whole night talking to Klaus, catching up on everything he'd missed lying in the box even though the only person he was thinking about the entire time was Rhiannon. What happened to her? Was she alright? Would she want to talk to him after what he did back then?

Rhiannon's nerves were getting the best of her as she was unpacking her things in her new apartment waiting for a phone call or something but nothing happened. She was going crazy trying to figure out why she hadn't heard from Elijah already. What if he was ashamed for betraying her back then? What if Klaus daggered him again? Or what if he didn't want to be with her now that she was a hybrid? Did he even know she was one?

She tried to dial Damon about hundred times but to no avail. She was definitely going to go insane if she kept it up so she went out for a walk to clear her head and calm her nerves. When she got back into her apartment, he was there, sitting on a bar stool drinking a glass of bourbon, looking handsome as ever. She stopped dead in her tracks when she saw him, muttering weakly: "Elijah."

He stood up and smiled at her sheepishly. He had no idea what to say or where to start. Was he supposed to apologize? Would she even accept his apologies? His thoughts were interrupted by the sight of her vamp-speeding towards him and before he could do anything else, she smacked him across the face with tears in her eyes, then she grabbed at the lapels of his jacket and crushed her lips against his. He was taken aback, certainly not expecting this kind of welcome after what he'd done, but recovered quickly, snaking one of his hands into her hair and the other one around her waist, pulling her as close to him as possible. She moaned against his lips, deepening the kiss for a moment before ending it.

"Don't ever do this to me again," she whispered hiding her face in his neck.

"I've missed you too," he mumbled lifting her head and pecking her upper lip. As she pulled away he noticed the veins under her eyes were darkened as her pupils shone in that golden-amber color and the white's of her eyes turned black. "Wait what happened? Are you a… Did my brother turn you into a hybrid?"

"I…" Rhiannon started looking down on her feet trying to free herself from Elijah's grasp. She tried to restrain her feelings but she couldn't contain the tears that started roll down her face.

"I'm so sorry Rhiannon," Elijah whispered hugging her tightly. She melted into his embrace, sobbing quietly and he tried to concentrate on her presence and on the warmth of her body against his in order to suppress the urge to feed Klaus his own insides. He will make him pay for this. "I'm sorry this happened to you."

"I'm alright," she muttered weakly, still holding onto him for dear life. "I've managed to adjust. I mean, my emotions are still all over the place as I'm sure you've noticed, but other than that, I'm alright," she said.

"I swear I will make him pay for it Rhiannon," he said leading her towards an armchair and sitting her down, he kneeled in front of her and grabbed her hands in his saying: "There's not enough words in English language for me to apologize enough times for everything that I've done and everything that happened to you because of me. I can only try to make it up to you if you let me. But if you want me gone out of your life I will leave you alone. God knows I've done enough to ruin your life. Just know that I still love you and I will do anything you want me to make it right."

"You're here, that's all that matters to me," she muttered squeezing his hands making him look up at her. "I love you and as long as you're here with me, nothing else matters."

"I'm here and I'm not going anywhere," he said grabbing her face in his hands gently and kissed her pulling her into his lap, then walked with her in his arms to the sofa. "Tonight I'll deal with Klaus, free the rest of my family and we can do anything we want to. We can go anywhere you want to."

"What?" Rhiannon asked a little confused. "Is there anything going on tonight?"

"Yes. Me Stefan and Damon are dealing with Klaus tonight. My brother believes that I've forgiven him. We're going to negotiate a fake truce while the Bennet witches open the sealed coffin," Elijah elaborated. "I want you to stay out of it. Wait for me here. I'll be back as soon as we finish this and we can leave this town together."

"I don't like it Elijah," Rhiannon started. "Please be careful. I just got you back. I don't want to lose you all over again. I'll do what you want. I'll wait for you. Just… come back to me."

"I will, I promise," he muttered and kissed her gently once more before leaving her apartment.

Rhiannon was done packing all of her thing again and wondering what was transpiring in the Mikaelson mansion at that moment and where did Elijah want to take her. She ordered some Chinese take-out, showered and was trying to distract herself watching some TV show on Netflix. It was late and she was trying hard not to panic. She fell asleep on the couch and woke up few hours later to a sensation of being carried in someone's arms. She was about to freak out when she felt Elijah's lips press against her forehead, him muttering against her hair: "Go back to sleep sweetheart. I'm here."

"You're back," she mumbled sleepily against his shoulder.

"I told you I'd be," he whispered laying her down on the bed, and then climbed on it besides her pulling the covers over them. She turned around and snuggled her head into his chest, asking sleepily: "So what happened? Is everything alright?"

"Yes, I managed to free my siblings and Bonnie with her mother opened the sealed casket," Elijah elaborated stroking her hair lightly. "My mother's back."

"What?" Rhiannon cried out propping herself on her elbow: "But how? I thought Klaus ripped her heart out?"

"Well he did, but her witch friend Ayana preserved her body with a spell," Elijah said mimicking her movements. "She was Bonnie's ancestor so that's why only her and her mother were able to open up the casket and bring her back. Apparently she's drawing on their entire ancestral line for power."

"Oh wow," Rhiannon muttered. "Does anyone in this town not have crazy thousand years old ancestors?"

"I seriously doubt that," Elijah snorted in amusement.

"So what happens now?" Rhiannon asked. "I mean, she was supposed to be the thing that would destroy Klaus once and for all, wasn't she."

"Well yes," Elijah retorted playing with a loose strand of hair that was framing her face. "About that. She said she came back to forgive him and reunite our family as a whole once again. I'm not sure why but that seems a little strange to me."

"Well yea," Rhiannon muttered. "So we're staying in Mystic Falls for now I take it?"

"Yes, for the time being," Elijah sighed. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's alright," she muttered nestling her head on his chest once again. "As long as we're together."

"Oh I'm not letting you out of my sight," Elijah said kissing the top of her head. "That reminds me. I'd feel much better if you came to live with me and my family so I can keep you safe and spend as much time with you as possible."

"Really?" Rhiannon asked a little surprised but nevertheless pleased. "You want me to live with you?"

"I… of course you could pick your own room," Elijah said a little uneasy. He didn't want her to think he was pressuring her into anything. "There's plenty to choose from."

"Stop fretting Elijah," she said. She couldn't help but smile. He was so confident and gutsy most of the time so it was really rare and precious to see him so sheepish about something. "I'd love that very much. But would your family be okay with that?"

"I'm sure they'd all love to meet you," Elijah said squeezing her tight against him. "Obviously, you already know Rebekah, who by the way couldn't say enough nice things about you. Klaus, well, I'll make sure he behaves himself. The rest will be delighted to meet you I'm sure of it."

"Okay then," she muttered happily kissing him. "I like your new hair by the way," she said before finally settling in bed and falling asleep in his arms once again.

"Thank you," he retorted snuggling closer to her. "Good night sweetheart."

The next morning Rhiannon woke up in her bed alone, but in the living room on the coffee table there was a big black fancy looking box tied with a cream silk ribbon. She walked up closer to it and saw there was an envelope on top of it. She opened it and read the invitation to a ball at a Mikaelson mansion that evening. She turned the invitation around and there, written in Elijah's elegant script was a note that read:

_Rhiannon,_

_I apologize for leaving you alone this morning but I had to pick up your dress for tonight. I hope you'll like it. I'll have a car pick you up at eight o'clock. I can't wait to see you._

_Love_

_ Elijah_


	18. Chapter 18 - The Ball

**CHAPTER 18 – THE BALL**

After Rhiannon showered and ate a little breakfast, she finally managed to dig up her phone somewhere from between couch cushions. Four missed calls, one text from Elena.

_I know you're still mad at us but you should know that Caroline's dad died last night._

She called Caroline immediately. She wasn't mad at her because she wasn't a part of the stupid homecoming plot and even if she was, Rhiannon couldn't ignore the fact she just lost one of her parents.

_"Hey Rhiannon,"_ Caroline answered her phone in her usual chipper manner. _"What's up?"_

"Care, I heard what happened last night," Rhiannon said. "I don't know what to say. I am so sorry. How are you doing?"

_"I'm dealing,"_ she said solemnly. _"Do you want to meet in a grill for lunch?"_

"I'd love to," Rhiannon retorted. "Meet you there at twelve?"

_"Yea, that works for me,"_ Caroline agreed. _"Is it okay if Elena comes too?"_

"Yea, I think it's about time we bury the hatchet," Rhiannon muttered. "I'll see you soon."

"It's all so weird," Elena muttered over her cezar salad. "The Originals are throwing a ball, like an actual ball."

"Well I don't know about you guys, but I think we could all use some fancy fun," Rhiannon retorted.

"It's some twisted Cinderella fetish is what it is," Caroline growled. "And why does the evil witch want an audience with you?"

"I have no idea," Elena retorted. "There's only one way to find out."

"I thought you told Damon and Stefan you weren't going," Rhiannon said.

"I did," Elena said. "Which is all the more reason why I need a drama free bodyguard."

"I don't know, is it a good idea to go talk to Esther?" Rhiannon protested. "She already tried to kill you once. Who's to say she wouldn't try again."

"I need to find out what she wants from me," Elena objected. "Bonnie was led to open that casket for a reason."

"Yea, because Esther is channeling her entire bloodline. I told you Elijah told me that," Rhiannon retorted. "There's no guarantee there's any other reason."

"Well the only way we'll know for sure is if I talk to her," Elena countered looking over to Caroline. "So what do you think?"

"Well I think a Salvatore would look a lot better in a tux," Caroline joked. "And by that I mean Stefan."

"Alright I see my input is being completely ignored once again so I'm gonna head out," Rhiannon said standing up throwing some cash on the table. "I gotta get ready. See you at the ball."

Rhiannon was looking at herself in a mirror in the back of a limousine Elijah sent for her trying hard to calm down. She was both nervous and excited. Excited to see Elijah again and nervous about meeting the rest of his family. As the driver pulled up, she saw Elijah walk down the stairs to help her get out. He was incredibly handsome in his tux making Rhiannon's mouth water. His hair slicked back and his tux hugging him in all the right places. James Bond can suck it, Rhiannon thought to herself as she readjusted her pelerine.

Elijah couldn't wait to see Rhiannon in the gown he picked for her. As he reached for the door handle and opened the door he wasn't prepared for the beautiful vision in front of him. There she was looking like a princess in her gorgeous dress, cream colored gloves and fur pelerine. Her hair was in a simple yet elegant bun with a lovely silver-diamante trinket in the back. He was speechless as he reached out his hand to help her get out of the car.

"You look absolutely stunning my love," he said as he held her both hands looking her up and down.

"You don't look so bad yourself," Rhiannon teased blushing wildly. "Thank you for the dress. It's gorgeous."

"Not nearly as gorgeous as the woman wearing them," Elijah muttered seductively and pulled her in for a kiss that made her swoon. After a while, he broke the kiss and grabbed her hand placing it in the crook of his arm. "Shall we?" he asked gesturing towards the mansion.

"Let's go," she smiled and let him lead her inside.

"Wow, this house is amazing," Rhiannon muttered in awe.

"Let's get you something to drink," Elijah said after helping her out of her pelerine. "I'll be right back."

"Good evening love," Klaus said walking somewhere from behind her. "You look ravishing tonight."

"Thank you," Rhiannon said not really knowing what to say or how to behave around him. She hated his guts for what he did to her and Elijah but it would appear that Elijah has really forgiven him so she should at least try to be civil to him.

"I was hoping we could have a word," Klaus said leading her further inside the spacious hall. "I wanted to apologize for turning you into hybrid. I can see my brother genuinely cares for you and that is something I haven't seen in centuries. Plus you could say we are distant cousins and family members should at least try to get along. So what do you say?" Klaus asked extending his hand towards her. "Bygones?"

"Oh what the hell," Rhiannon muttered shaking his hand. "Bygones."

"Great," Klaus chirped happily. "I'll see you around little wolf," he said walking away. Rhiannon followed him with her gaze and saw he was walking towards Caroline who was wearing a gorgeous blue gown with beaded bodice. She never looked more beautiful.

"What did my brother want from you?" Elijah asked walking towards her with two glasses f champagne.

"Get this, he came to apologize for turning me into a hybrid and being a dick in general," Rhiannon said sipping on her champagne.

"Well, miracles do happen," Elijah joked making Rhiannon choke on her drink.

"Well what do you know," she joked along.

"I'm to introduce our family to our guests," Elijah said. "Come along."

"Oh alright," Rhiannon said chugging the rest of her champagne and walking with Elijah towards the staircase. He stopped at the bottom kissing Rhiannon's temple gently, whispering "wait for me here", and walked halfway up the stairs followed by his siblings.

"If everyone could gather please," Elijah called out loud getting everybody's attention. "Welcome. Thank you for joining us. You know whenever our mother brings our family together like this, it's tradition for us to commence the evening with a dance. Tonight's pick is a centuries old waltz, so if all of you could please find yourselves a partner, please join us in the ball room."

Second later he was at the bottom of the stairs, grabbing Rhiannon's hand and kissing it slowly he asked. "May I?"

"Certainly," she beamed at him and let him lead her to the ball room. "You're gonna have to lead though. I've never really done this."

"Don't worry," Elijah whispered. "Just follow my lead."

A romantic music started to play as they were all lined up in the ball room. Bowing to each other they stared into each other's eyes. Twirling her around Elijah led her through the dance floor with ease and experience.

"Why am I not surprised that you're an amazing dancer?" Rhiannon teased looking into his eyes and holding the train of her gown.

"Well you're not the worst dancer yourself," Elijah teased back mimicking her compliment from earlier.

"Ha-ha, you're very funny," she glared at him playfully. "I've had training but I never thought I'd have any use for it."

"Well life's full of surprises," Elijah joked twirling her around but not letting her switch partners making Rhiannon raise an eyebrow at him questioningly. "I don't share," he growled playfully sending shivers down her spine.

"Greedy," she muttered squeezing his shoulder. "Not that I'm complaining."

"Good," he smiled swaying them to the music.

After the dance, Elijah disappeared for a while to talk to Elena.

"My god you truly are a vision," a young man she'd never seen before said walking up to her with two glasses of champagne. "Kol Mikaelson. It's a pleasure to meet you love."

"Rhiannon Petersen," she said letting him kiss her hand. "Pleasure to meet you as well. So you're Elijah's younger brother?"

"Indeed, younger, more handsome," he joked. "I see my sister needs my assistance. I will have to excuse myself. Again, it was a pleasure to meet you dear," he said walking away leaving Rhiannon alone. She decided to go back to the main hall to find Elijah. He was talking to Elena.

"Hey guys," she said walking up to them. "Elena, you look beautiful."

"Thank you," Elena muttered not really looking at her. That was odd and it made her feel a bit uneasy. "You look beautiful too."

"If you'll excuse us Elena," Elijah said leading Rhiannon away from the doppelganger.

"So did you find out anything?" she asked him.

"Just the same story my mother's given us," Elijah said grabbing two fresh glasses of champagne. "I still don't think that's a hundred percent true, but we won't let that spoil tonight."

"Agreed," Rhiannon smiled at him.

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen," Esther called out getting everyone's attention. "Waiters are coming around with champagne. I invite you all to join me in raising a glass. It provides me with no greater joy than to see my family back together as one. I'd like to thank you all for being part of this spectacular evening. Cheers."

"Cheers darling," Elijah said raising his glass.

"Cheers," Rhiannon toned smiling and sipping at her champagne.

After that, they took a walk in the huge garden that was a part of the mansion. It was early autumn and most of the flower had already died but it still had its charm. Elijah noticed she shivered once or twice so he took of his jacket and put it around her shoulders.

"Always the gentleman," Rhiannon muttered appreciatively making him smirk at her in a way that made her weak in the knees.

"So you think I could send the car for your stuff tomorrow?" Elijah asked walking with his hand on the small of her back.

"Yea, that would work," Rhiannon said smiling at him. "I guess you should give me a tour of this house once everybody leaves because I'm pretty sure I'd get lost in here."

"Anything you want darling," he said stopping her and brushing the hair out of her face. "You look so beautiful tonight," he muttered before placing one hand on her cheek and the other on the small of her back pulling her closer to him. Rhiannon placed her hands on his chest and closed her eyes in sweet anticipation of his lips on hers. She had kissed him multiple times but every time it felt like she was consumed by this fire inside her that burned only for him. She twined her hands into his hair and he pulled her even closer. She couldn't take it anymore.

"Take me to your room," she whispered with bated breath once they broke the kiss. That was all he needed to hear and before she even realized what was happening, he was walking down an empty hallway with her in his arms. He opened the door to his room with one swift kick, putting her down on the ground again. She let his jacket fall from her shoulders and took off her gloves caressing and feeling the contours of his face with her bare hands as if she'd never seen him before.

He grabbed her hands with his pulling them down from his face and kissing her palm gently. Then he put his hands on both sides of her face pulling her in for a gentle kiss, deepening it gradually until they were both breathless. He tugged at the silver trinket that was holding her bun in place letting her long auburn hair fall down on her shoulders. Rhiannon walked closer towards him undoing buttons on his vest while he was tugging on his bowtie.

"Are you sure about this Rhiannon?" Elijah muttered caressing her cheek with his hand.

"Yes, just… go easy on me," she said looking down, then back up at him. "I've never actually erm… you know."

He didn't know what to say to that so he just hugged her tight stroking her neck and back while kissing her lightly. He pulled away looking deep into her eyes saying: "I love you Rhiannon."

"I love you Elijah," she whispered breathlessly.

He stroked down up and down her back reaching for the zipper on her gown and opened it slowly. Then he circled her standing behind her pulling the zipper further apart slinging the straps of her dress over her shoulder making breath hitch in her throat. He pulled her tight against him, placing one hand around her while caressing her neck and shoulder with other as he nibbled at her earlobe. She almost jumped out of her skin at that point, her heightened senses making every sensation thousand times more intense. She turned around to see him and saw the blood rush to his face, the veins under his eyes darkening with desire and his fangs extending in his semi-opened mouth. He was beautiful, not at all the monster he considered himself to be sometimes.

Elijah reached out his hand and with one swift movement pulled her gown down the rest of the way until it was pooling around her feet revealing a lacey coral pink bralette and matching boy shorts. She quickly stepped out of her dress discarding her heels in the process and crashed her body against his tearing his shirt open making buttons pop out in every direction. He whisked her up in his arms and kissing her neck and collar bone he carried her to the bed where he laid her down admiring the view in front of him before he crawled on top of her. He trapped her underneath his body and kissed down her chest and her stomach making delicious moans escape from her throat. As he came dangerously close to the line of her underwear she grabbed onto his hair and he could feel she was nervous.

She wanted Elijah more than anything at that moment but she couldn't help to not be a little nervous. She knew he could sense that as he came up for more kisses. He took her bralette off and softly caressed her bare chest, down her stomach and under her panties gently cupping her most intimate parts. She arched her back at the warm sensation of his touch down there opening herself to him. He explored her gently and slowly at first, drawing random patterns around her nub, then reached even further and pushed on finder inside of her wet slit watching for her reaction and he wasn't disappointed. She moaned loudly squirming under his touch, grabbing onto bed sheets for dear life.

"That feels so good," she whispered breathlessly pulling him in for another kiss while he pumped his finger in and out slowly. She was ready.

"I love you," Elijah whispered as he discarded her panties along with the rest of his clothing. He positioned himself over her again, kissing her gently, caressing her hair and body. "Let me know if it hurts too much," he whispered giving her one last kiss before he pushed himself inside of her. She tensed for a moment, battling the uncomfortable sensation but it was gone as quick as it came and all she could feel was the immense pleasure building inside of her. They started to move slowly at first, kissing everywhere they could reach, and whispering sweet nothings to each other they gradually quickened the pace.

Rhiannon looked up at Elijah's who's eyes were blood red and fixed at her, his veins darkening again and she could feel the blood rush too. She pulled him in for a scorching kiss and when they broke it coming up for air, she whispered "bite me." He looked up at her hesitantly but she could see that deep down he wanted to. "Go on, I want you to taste all of me," she encouraged him pressing his head down towards her neck. She could feel the tremors that wracked his body as he was trying to gain control over himself again.

"I love you Elijah," she whispered scratching his back lightly. That did it for him and he lost even the slightest piece of self-control as he sank his fangs into her neck while quickening his pace, making her moan loudly into his ear. He could feel she was coming closer and closer to her orgasm so he intensified his thrusts until her walls started clenching around him. He raised his head and looked deep into her eyes as she tumbled over the edge with a loud moan, the wound on her neck healing instantly. He was dangerously close himself and as she pulled him down for a kiss, tasting her own blood on his lips he lost it and with last few powerful thrusts spilled himself inside of her collapsing on top of her and resting his head in the crook of her neck breathing heavily.

He certainly was experienced in his years but never had he ever reached this level of intimacy with anybody else. He knew that this young woman was his destiny and that he would end anybody who would try and steal the happiness she was bringing into his life.

He collected himself quickly realizing he must have been crushing her so he rolled off of her and nestled himself beside her, pulling the covers over them and when he looked up to her he realized her eyes were filled with tears.

"Are you alright darling?" he asked with a concern in his voice, panicking and caressing her wild hair softly. "I'm so sorry if I hurt you."

"No you didn't do anything wrong," she whispered breathlessly. "It's just I've never felt so wonderful before. And I don't mean just sex, although this was pretty fucking amazing. I've never been so happy before. I love you."

"I love you too," Elijah muttered kissing her forehead gently. "We should get some sleep though."

"Good night Elijah," she muttered cuddling closer.

"Good night my love," he whispered kissing the top of her head before drifting into blissful sleep.


	19. Chapter 19 - The Betrayal

**CHAPTER 19 – THE BETRAYAL**

When Rhiannon woke up the next morning, she was confused for a while but then the events of the last night came flooding back making her smile lazily as she stretched her sore limbs out.

"Good morning love," she heard Elijah mumble in a raspy morning voice making her finally open her eyes to see him, laying right beside her in all his glory, watching her.

"Good morning," she muttered happily and snuggled against his chest.

"Did you sleep well?" he asked tracing random patterns on her shoulders with his thumb.

"Like a baby," she said and climbed on top of him to get her kiss. He held her there, deepening the kiss. The mood was however interrupted by a loud churn coming from Rhiannon's stomach, making them both chuckle.

"Looks like somebody's hungry," Elijah murmured kissing her forehead lightly. "What do you feel like eating?"

"Hmm, I don't know, and omelet sounds pretty good, what do you think?" Rhiannon said trying to get off of his lap, but he didn't feel like letting her go. He grabbed her by her shoulders playfully and pulled her in for another kiss.

"Sounds amazing," he whispered after kissing her almost senseless and he finally let her go. "Why don't you take a shower and I'll get that started for you."

"And who are you gonna compel to do that?" she joked running away towards where she assumed the bathroom was.

"How dare you," he growled playfully chasing after her and catching her second before she could lock herself in a bathroom and pinning her against the wall. She smirked at him devilishly, the veins under her eyes darkening for a second. _She's perfection_, he thought to himself before he whisked her up making her cross her legs around his waist, still holding her against the wall. He leaned in brushing his lips against her collarbone making breath hitch in her throat and kissed her neck chastely just below her jaw line. Then he let go of her and started towards door making her snort inelegantly at him, muttering: "Tease."

"That's what you get for mocking my culinary skills," he joked before she closed the bathroom door behind her.

After Rhiannon got out of shower she realized that besides her ball gown, she doesn't have any other clothes here. Elijah probably realized that as well because when she came back to the room, laid out on the bed was a black V-neck cotton T-shirt and a pair of very luxurious looking boxers. She couldn't help but smile at his thoughtfulness as she put on his clothes and set out to find the kitchen. She had no idea where it was so she used her supernatural hearing abilities to look for familiar voice. Soon she heard him, moving about the kitchen listening and humming to some jazz music. She followed his voice as well as the delicious smell that was starting to spread throughout the house.

Elijah was whisking eggs to add into the pan, humming contently, throwing the whisk into the sink with his typical grace.

"Do I want to know what's gotten you in such a great mood this morning?" Klaus asked from the door, giving his older brother an amused look.

"That's none of your business Niklaus," Elijah retorted but without the usual strain in his voice that would suggest his brother crossed some sort of a line which only added to Klaus' confusion. That was cleared out very quickly as Rhiannon walked in, muttering "morning" while blushing wildly.

"I wasn't aware you're still with us love," Klaus teased making Elijah shot him a warning look. He was in a good mood but that didn't mean he was going to tolerate any foolishness from his brother.

"Well seeing as you were preoccupied pining over Caroline, I can hardly blame you," Rhiannon teased back, effectively shutting Klaus up on the matter, making him smirk appreciatively. Elijah couldn't help but snicker as he continued his cooking. He should have known that Rhiannon wouldn't take any bullshit from any of his siblings.

"Nice," Kol hollered appreciatively from behind Rhiannon. "I knew I liked you for a reason."

"You are a feisty little wolf," Klaus retorted. "No wonder my brother adores you so."

"Well thanks," Rhiannon said brushing past Klaus to sit behind the kitchen island and watch Elijah work in the kitchen. She couldn't help but appreciate the elegance behind his moves which wasn't the least bit diminished by the fact that he was wearing a white V-neck T-shirt and something that could be described as a very fancy looking sweatpants.

"Mind if we join you for the breakfast," Klaus asked sitting across from Rhiannon.

"Not at all," Elijah said after looking at Rhiannon who just shrugged and sipped at her coffee.

"So do you want to hear some embarrassing stories about Elijah?" Kol asked dodging a kitchen towel Elijah threw at him. "I've got plenty."

"Hey Elijah," Rhiannon said into her phone walking towards her car.

_"Darling, everything alright?"_ he asked.

"Yea, I just wanted you to know that I sent your car with my stuff back to you," she said getting in. "I can't find my curling iron anywhere though. I think I left it at Salvatore's, so I'm gonna go grab her and I'll be right there."

_"Alright,"_ Elijah said. _"Do hurry up love; I need to discuss something with you. I think we might have a problem."_

"Why can't we have at least few days without any supernatural Armageddon on the horizon?" Rhiannon sighed exhausted. "I'll be there as soon as I can. I love you."

_"You should know that Esther's planning on killing her entire family," _Rhiannon heard Elena say inside the boarding house making her stop dead in her tracks. _"She's linked them all together with a spell. Whatever happens to one, happens to all of them."_

_"That's great!_" Damon retorted with his typical attitude. _"Klaus will finally be dead. We win. Why do you look like someone just shot a panda bear?"_

_ "Because to kill Klaus she has to kill all of them,"_ Elena cried out. "_Including Elijah and he doesn't deserve this."_

_"Am I supposed to care about Elijah?"_ Damon bit back making Rhiannon's blood boil with white hot rage. She kicked in the door vamp-speeding and shoving Damon into the opposite wall.

"Are you fucking kidding me?!" she snarled and blurred across the room before he could recover from the shock and kicked him in the ribs knocking the wind out of him.

"Rhiannon stop it!" Elena pleaded running towards them.

"Shut up Elena!" she snarled at her making her stop dead in her tracks. "I told you Damon that if you cross me once, it wouldn't end up just with a punch." She growled, veins under her eyes darkening as she bared her fangs at him ready to bite his head off but before she could do that Stefan blurred into the room snapping her neck.

Elijah decided to sort some stuff up in the study while he waited for Rhiannon to show up, but those plans were scrapped as he found burnt sage and various artifacts in one of the drawers. He went downstairs just in time to meet with rather disheveled Rebekah just returning from the other night.

"Rebekah," Elijah called out from the door.

"Not you too Elijah," she retorted exasperatedly.

"I'm worried about mother," he said. "Have you not noticed her strange behavior?"

"She's been dead for thousand years, what's strange for her?" she countered.

"Burnt sage," Elijah insisted handing it to Rebekah. "She was doing a privacy spell."

Rebekah looked unsure at first but then dismissed it saying: "You know she fancies such things. Why don't you ask Finn? He's been doting on her."

"I don't trust Finn," Elijah retorted. "He hates what we are, he always has."

"It's not true," Rebekah objected. "And as for mother, she returned for one reason. To make our family whole. She loves us. What trouble are you looking to find?"

"See I would love to believe that," Elijah retorted. "But I knew Elena was lying to me last night. Something's up."

"Alright," Rebekah said. "Let me know what you find out."

"Elena," Elijah greeted the deceitful doppelganger.

"Elijah," she said trying hard to sound normal but not quite succeeding. He could sense she was very nervous.

"I don't mean to intrude," he said. "I was hoping you might accompany me. I want to show you something."

Elijah was pulling up on the spot in the woods where his home used to be once, asking causally: "Have you talked to Rhiannon today?"

"Not really," Elena retorted not looking at him. Another lie. "Why?"

"Just curious," he said. Her uneasiness was growing with every passing moment. "I forgot how much I missed this land."

"I can't even imagine what it must've been like a thousand years ago," Elena pondered.

"You know your school was built over an Indian village?" Elijah asked strolling causally next to Elena. "Where I saw my first werewolf. The town square was where the natives would gather to worship. As a matter of fact near that was a, there was a field where wild horses used to graze."

"That's incredible," Elena toned.

"Come," he said quickening his strides towards a rocky structure.

"Do you know this place too?" Elena asked.

"I do," he retorted smiling a little. "Below us is a cavern I used to play in as a boy. It connects to a system of tunnels that stretch across the entire area. Mother nature's way of providing us with a shelter against the savagery of the full moon. My mother said there must be a balance."

"Elijah I should probably go home," Elena muttered, her heart beating even quicker than before.

"I admire you Elena," he said. "You remind me of qualities I admired long before my mother turned us. It's not in your nature to be deceitful," Elijah started pointing his finger towards her. "And yet when I asked about your meeting with my mother you lied to my face."

"That's not true," Elena tried to convince him but to no effect. Her heartbeat had already given her away. "I told you that all your mother wanted was a new start."

"I can hear your heartbeat," Elijah cut her off. Enough with these lies. "It jumps when you're being dishonest. You lied to me at the ball and you're lying to me now. Tell me the truth."

"I never wanted this to happen," Elena muttered backing up slightly.

"What Elena?" Elijah growled.

"We were told that whatever was gonna be in that coffin was gonna kill Klaus," Elena started. "When we found out that it was your mother we didn't know what to think.

"Since her return she only said she wanted her family again," Elijah said.

"When she asked to see me I thought that maybe she could help, that she would find a way to kill Klaus but—" Elena stopped for a while trying to look as sorry as possible. "It's not just Klaus she wants to kill."

"She wants to kill us all doesn't she," Elijah muttered trying hard to contain himself. "She wants to undo the evil she created. Where is Rhiannon?" Elijah asked again.

"Elijah—" Elena started but he was having none of it.

"Elena, I'm going to ask you one last time," Elijah growled. "Where is she?"

"She's in a cellar in Salvatore house," Elena finally elaborated. "She overheard our conversation and went after Damon. She was furious and she was going to bite him so Stefan snapped her neck." Upon hearing that he had to use every last bit of restraint he had left no to rip into the doppelganger's throat. He was livid.

"I'm so sorry Elijah," Elena muttered. "I wish there was something I could do to help."

"You know one thing I've learnt in my time on this Earth is," Elijah deadpanned. "be careful what you wish for," he added stomping hard on the ground creating a hole that led straight to the caverns below. He grabbed Elena and jumped down with her leaving her there.

"Rebekah," Elijah said into his phone. "Our mother is trying to kill us. She's using Bennet witches to do so."

_"What?!"_ his baby sister cried out into her phone. _"What are we going to do?!"_

"I have Elena trapped in the caverns where we used to play as children," Elijah said. "Go there and keep an eye on her would you? I'm going to make the damned Salvatore boys fix the situation. If they fail, kill her."

He stormed right into the Salvatore boarding house and headed for the cellar where he found Rhiannon laying on the ground, unconscious. My poor Rhiannon. why does she always ends caught up in a cross fire, drugged or with a snapped neck? Elijah thought to himself as he picked her up from the dusty ground and carried her upstairs. He placed her down on the couch and bit his wrist letting his blood drop into her mouth.

"Rhiannon, sweetheart, wake up," he whispered holding her close to him. Soon she regained her consciousness and sprung up all panicked.

"Elijah! Your mother! They want to kill you all!" she cried out.

"I know, darling, I know," he said grabbing her face with his hand to calm her down.

"What are we gonna do?" she asked with tears in her eyes. "We don't have much time."

"Don't worry," Elijah muttered with an edge to his voice. "I've taken care of it."

As if on a cue, Damon walked into the foyer and stopped dead in his tracks soon followed by Stefan.

"Where's Elena?" Damon asked immediately figuring out what was going on.

"She's with Rebekah," Elijah said standing up and walking in front f Rhiannon protectively. "As you can imagine my sister's just dying to tear her throat out. So if you want to save Elena's life I need you to help me stop my mother."

"I'm a little embarrassed to admit," Damon started. "But when it comes to killing thousand years' old resurrected witches, I'm a little rusty."

"Yes unfotunatelly even when killed my mother doesn't seem to want to stay dead, not with the spirits of nature on her side," Elijah retorted looking over at Rhiannon who only nodded. She felt a little guilty for Elena being in a life threatening situation but it was time to protect her own and to do that she would do anything. It would appear that her friends don't give a damn about her and are hell-bent on killing the man she loves, so that implied they were no longer friends.

"So what are we supposed to do?" Stefan asked stepping forward.

"Witches that released my mother," Elijah started again. "She's drawing her power from their bloodline. That line needs to be broken."

"Broken?" Stefan asked.

"Yea he means—" Damon muttered slitting his throat with his finger to explain what Elijah meant.

"You want us to kill them," Stefan said.

"You know I'd do it myself but I have absolutely no idea where they are," Elijah retorted. "Besides seeing me they'd immediately know my intentions. They wouldn't expect harm from the likes of you."

"In any case," Elijah said turning around and helping Rhiannon stand up. "You have until six minutes after nine to find them."

"Oh how super specific of you," Damon bit back.

"By nine 'o' seven the moon will be full, my mother will have the power she needs to kill me and my family. If you do not stop her before then, Rebekah will kill Elena," Elijah said walking towards the Salvatore boys, Rhiannon following closely behind him glaring at them.

"So we all have our timeline," Elijah continued walking past them, shoving them out of the way. "I suggest you get started."

"Oh," he said turning around. "Don't ever touch Rhiannon again or I will make you feel things worse than death," he growled placing a hand on the small of her back leading her out of the boarding house.


	20. Chapter 20 - The Reckoning

**A/N: I´m back! Sorry for the long wait, but I've had a hectic couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy this update. Feedback is welcomed :)**

**CHAPTER 20 – THE RECKONING**

Elijah and Rhiannon were walking, really almost jogging, through the town square and she was trying her best not to burst into tears, the sheer panic at the thought of losing him was absolutely overwhelming.

"Damn it!" Elijah muttered putting his phone back into the inside pocket of his coat. "Klaus is not picking up his phone. We have to find him."

"Didn't you say he went out with Kol? Maybe we should try Mystic Grill. Elijah wait!" Rhiannon said grabbing his hand, making him stop. He looked at her, confused but then saw her eyes were filled with tears. She didn't say a word, just hugged him fiercely letting a few strangled sobs escape. He hugged her back, stroking her hair muttering: "It's okay sweetheart. It's going to be okay." He whispered with and optimism he himself didn't feel. He felt a tear run down his face. He was absolutely terrified. He wasn't afraid of dying. He wasn't ready to leave her. He never would be.

"I love you," she whispered letting him go. He was about to place a chaste kiss on her forehead when he felt the all too familiar sting in his heart and started to slump to the ground. Confused he looked up to see Rhiannon's face, freaked out and crying hysterically.

"Elijah!" she screamed. "No, no, no, no, no, no….. NO! This can't be happening! Please!"

She just kneeled beside Elijah and sobbed hysterically. This couldn't be it, she thought. The moon isn't full yet. Just as she started to realize that, she saw Elijah wake up and come back to life. She hugged him so tight she was sure she'd squeeze his eyeballs out of his skull, and he reciprocated. "You scared the shit out of me," she muttered weakly.

"I'm sorry love," he whispered kissing her forehead lightly. "C'mon, we have to go."

"Leave him!" Elijah called out sternly from the top of the stairs. "We still need him Niklaus."

"What did mother do?" Klaus asked. "What did you do Elijah?"

Elijah went down, holding Rhiannon's hand in one hand, and his cell phone in another, saying: "You tell me where the witches are or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now."

"You told me he had until after nine!" Damon objected.

"Yea that was before you tried to screw us over again!" Rhiannon spat out venomously.

"That, and I'm sure Rebekah will be more than happy to start her work early," Elijah added viciously.

"My sons," Esther said calmly. "Come forward."

"Stay beside me," Finn muttered.

"It's okay. They can't enter," she retorted grabbing her eldest son's hand. Alright, bitch's batshit crazy, Rhiannon though to herself as she walked forward beside Elijah and his brothers. The plan was to stall her while Stefan and Damon took care of the witch problem. There was no way they would let Elena die, she said to herself reassuringly. It will be alright.

Kol tried to come closer but he couldn't get through the salt circle. "That's lovely. We're stuck out here while the favorite son plays sacrificial lamb. How pathetic you are Finn."

"Be quiet Kol," Esther rebuked. "Your brother knows virtue you cannot even imagine."

"Whatever you think of us, killing your own children would be an atrocity." Elijah said in a voice so cold it made chills run down Rhiannon's spine making her hope she would never be at a receiving end of his cold hard glare.

"My only regret is that I did not let you die thousand years ago," Esther retorted.

"Enough," Klaus cut in with his typical bravado. "All this talk is boring me. End this now mother, or I'll send you back to hell."

"Yea, empty threats, that's really gonna help," Rhiannon muttered to herself.

"Remind me again why exactly you are here?!" Klaus snapped at her.

"I'm trying to save Elijah and your sorry ass!" Rhiannon bit back, having trouble to keep her temper at bay.

"For a thousand years I've been forced to watch you," Esther started, completely ignoring the exchange between Klaus and Rhiannon. "Felt the pain of every victim. Suffered while you shed blood. Even you Elijah, with your claim of nobility, you're no better. All of you. You're a curse on this Earth, stretched out over generations. If you've come to plead for your lives I'm sorry. You've wasted your time."

"How can you hate your children so much?!" Rhiannon called out, freeing herself from Elijah's grasp and stepping forward. "You did this to them! You forced this upon them! Everything they've done is on you! This fucked up revenge fantasy won't accomplish anything! It won't undo anything! Please! Don't do this! Don't kill them! Don't kill him!" she pleaded looking back at Elijah with tears in her eyes. She knew Salvatore boys will take care of the problem, and she was pretty much putting up the best show of her life in order to stall their loony witch-bitch of a mother, but still she couldn't help to feel a fraction of fear. What if something goes wrong and she would be able to finish her spell?

"You must be Rhiannon," Esther said conversationally as if she wasn't in the middle of the attempt to obliterate her children from the face of Earth. "You should know better than this. Your ancestor was a powerful witch who was very much against the evil I created thousand years ago. Tonight I'm fixing my mistake. Your pleas are futile."

Rhiannon shot the woman one last disgusted look and then ran to hide in Elijah's arms. "What are we going to do?" she muttered weakly.

"It's going to be alright sweetheart," Elijah whispered looking at his brothers.

"No!" Esther whispered. "Sisters! Do not abandon me!" she yelled as the ground started to shake and flames from the torches flared up high making them all back up, Elijah shielding Rhiannon from the fire with his jacket. And then it was over. The flames died and Esther and Finn were gone.

"We made it," Rhiannon whispered in shock. "We made it Elijah!" she said and kissed him passionately. He reciprocated although she could feel he didn't put his usual passion behind the kiss. She knew his mind was troubled.

"Let's get out of here," he muttered and led her away from the witch house. Half-hour later, they were pulling up before the mansion. Elijah didn't say a word throughout the whole drive. Rhiannon wasn't sure if it was because of Klaus and Kol lurking in the back seat of Elijah's car, or because he was hurt.

"Are you alright Elijah?" Rhiannon asked carefully once they got into his room. He didn't say anything, just shrugged out of his coat and suit jacket, walking up to the window and rolling up the sleeves of his shirt. "Elijah? Baby?" she never used a pet name for him before. That caught his attention. He turned around looking at her, still silent.

"I'm so sorry about your mother Elijah," Rhiannon muttered and hugged him lightly. He twined his arms around her finally saying: "I have no mother. We have no mother. Only Esther, and Esther was right."

"What are you talking about Elijah?" she asked, leaning away from him too look him in the eyes.

"Of my talk of virtue," Elijah clarified. "When it suits my needs I kill, mangle and torment. Even today I terrorized and innocent."

"I hope you're not talking about Elena, because she's hardly innocent," Rhiannon almost growled. "She deliberately lied to you about Esther's intentions and let you knowingly walk into a trap! They are no better than any of us! They also do whatever they please, no matter what it costs people around them! You can't let what Esther said get to you. You are not a monster Elijah!"

Why do you always have to defend me?!" Elijah yelled, clearly frustrated, stepping away and turning his back on her, sighing heavily letting his head drop down. She could feel the hurt and old insecurities radiate off of him in waves and she didn't have the first clue on how to fix it.

"Because I love you, you idiot," she said inching towards him. She placed her hand on his shoulder forcing him to turn around to look at her. He didn't have enough time to recover from the shock of her calling him an idiot. He closed the distance between them in seconds and kissed her so passionately, he almost toppled them over to the ground.

"I love you too Rhiannon," he muttered once they finally broke the kiss. "You know… since the bug happy family reunion is over, I'm thinking we should revisit our plans to get the hell out of this town. What do you think?"

"It's like you're in my head," she joked trying to lighten the mood. "Where would we go?"

"How do you feel about Switzerland?" Elijah asked still not letting her go, stroking her face with his thumb lightly. "We're gonna have to retrieve Esther's grimoar from the safe deposit, so we can find the spell she used to link us. Then we can work on reversing the process."

"Sounds like a plan," she muttered happily. "I really doubt this was Esther's last attempt of quintuple infanticide."

"You know infanticide only applies to newborn children right?" Elijah said. "I'm not exactly me and my siblings belong to that category."

"Smartass," Rhiannon muttered playfully, pecking his lips lightly. "Are you okay though? You know you can talk to me right?"

"I know sweetheart," he said. "And I love you. But there's not much to talk about. It is what it is. The only thing we can do is to find a way to stop Esther before she thinks of another way how to wipe us from the face of the Earth."

"And we will," she said firmly, looking into his eyes, making him sight deeply. She took his hand and led him to the bed, where she climbed up to the headboard and tapped the empty space next to her. He climbed up right next to her, pulling her down a little, snaking one arm around her shoulders and placing the other on her right cheek stroking lightly as he went in for a kiss. She snaked her hand under his shirt, stroking his back lightly as they deepened the kiss gradually. She could feel the need behind his actions, and when he broke the kiss to look her in the eyes, she saw just how vulnerable he was. The oldest brother (she refused to count Finn as a part of his family), the rock, the glue that held the remains of his family together against all odds. Always and forever. She could see the toll it has been taking out on him. He was tired. And he needed her. It was then and there she wowed to herself to be there for him and help him protect his family, even if some of them were homicidal lunatics.


	21. Chapter 21 - The Murder Of One

**CHAPTER 21 – THE MURDER OF ONE**

"Morning," Rhiannon muttered drowsily walking into the kitchen not really paying attention to her surroundings just yet. It was a little after six a.m. and her and Elijah were leaving for Switzerland that day. She didn't expect anybody else to be up this early in the morning, but once she poured herself a cup of steaming hot coffee; she realized that all three Mikaelson siblings were sitting around the kitchen island with a grave expression on their faces. "Oh god, what's going on?"

"We have a problem," Rebekah muttered picking at her breakfast.

"Yea, I seriously can't remember the day I haven't heard that phrase coming from somebody's mouth," Rhiannon mumbled into her coffee cup. "So what is it now?"

"So you remember when I told you about our family history, how we became vampires and how the only thing that could truly kill us was the wood from the white oak tree, so we burned it down?" Rebekah elaborated.

"Yea, that kind of story's hard to forget," Rhiannon retorted.

"Well yesterday I learned that there was, possibly still is, another tree," Rebekah said making Rhiannon choke on her coffee.

"What?!" she cried out. "Where?! Does anybody else know?!"

"We don't for sure," Klaus chimed in. "Which is why we need to get this unlinking spell over with as soon as possible. If somebody else finds out, or if this gets to our mother, we're all doomed."

"Well what the hell are we going to do about it?" Rhiannon asked looking at Elijah who was suspiciously quiet that morning. She knew he didn't sleep last night. She didn't either.

"Well it's quite simple really," Klaus started pouring himself some more coffee. "You and Elijah will go retrieve the grimoar while Rebekah will put her talents to work in efforts learn anything about the whereabouts of the bloody tree. I will provide witch and other ingredients necessary for the unlinking spell and Kol is already on his way to Denver to provide a perfect leverage that would ensure Bonnie's full cooperation."

"You're dragging Bonnie into this?" Rhiannon asked with disdain. "Okay, granted, she's already in the middle of this all but don't you have another witch at your disposal?"

"Not on such short notice, no," Klaus retorted in a manner that made it clear this affair wasn't open for discussion.

"Fine," Rhiannon sighed. "But please let me talk to her first before you threaten the crap out of her will you?"

"Alright," Klaus muttered. "But remember little wolf, clock's ticking."

"Yes, first class is fine," Rhiannon said into her phone, sitting next to Elijah who was driving to the airport. She was currently trying to rebook their round-trip flight tickets to an earlier date. Originally they were supposed to stay all week, but since learning about the white oak, everybody in the house was just itching to be unlinked. "Great thank you. Bye."

"So I have good news," Rhiannon said. "They were able to put us on an earlier flight."

"That's good," Elijah muttered absent-mindedly.

"I know it's kinda stupid question, especially given everything that's going on, but are you okay? I know you didn't sleep at all last night," Rhiannon started.

"I'm fine Rhiannon," Elijah said a little sternly. He realized he may have been harsher than he intended to so sighing, he shot her a small smile. "It's just that never in a thousand years I'd think I'd see our mother trying to make us extinct. She's always been so loving and protective. It's so unlike the woman I used to know."

"I know, and I'm so sorry this is happening," Rhiannon started reaching over and stroking the back of his neck lightly. "I guess a thousand years of suffering on the other side would do that to a person. And I'm not saying it's your fault she's been suffering for so long. She did that to herself by turning you into vampires. But clearly, she isn't the woman she used to be. She'd gone mad. And if some misguided idea of repentance is more important to her than preserving what's left of her family, then I'm sorry to say that but there's nothing else we can do but stop her. At all costs. You once said to me that you wouldn't let anybody hurt me if you could prevent it. Well it goes both ways. I love you and I won't let anybody take you away from me, even if that means I'd have to rip the heart out of your mother's chest myself!" she was almost yelling at this point because the idea of him not existing was just too much to handle. She was shaken out of her speech by Elijah abruptly pulling over at the side of the road, then attacking her with his lips so fiercely that for a moment she thought he would smother her.

Five hours later they were sitting on the plane, somewhere over the Atlantic when Rhiannon woke up from her nap.

"Hey," she muttered sleepily, still huddled up under Elijah's arm.

"Hey there," he smiled at her, tearing his gaze away from the window, stroking her shoulder lightly.

"So um… what's gotten into you back there in the car? I mean, I'm certainly not complaining," she trailed off, looking out the window, replaying the hot sex they had in the car on the way to the airport. Just thinking about it made her hot and bothered all over again.

"Well I just…," he started, then looked out the window again, trying to find right words to express just how much her words back then meant to him. "I've never had anybody fight for me so hard is all. I mean, obviously I have my siblings, but it's usually the other way around. And you saying things you said and just being there for me… it's…it means the world to me."

"Of course I'm here for you," she whispered, smiling lightly. "Even if it means I have to put up with Klaus," she added making him chuckle heartily.

They were at the baggage claim when Rhiannon's phone rang. She looked at the number and moved a little bit further away from all the noise. That didn't stop Elijah from eavesdropping on the conversation

"Hey Rebekah," she said with an edge to her voice. "I was about to call you. We just landed. Any news on the white oak?"

_"Actually yes,"_ he heard his baby sister say into the phone smugly. _"The white oak was on the Salvatore property. They used to own all the town's lumbermills back in the days. That particular tree was cut down to build the Wickery Bridge."_

"Oh my god," Rhiannon muttered.

_"Don't worry your pretty head love,"_ Rebekah continued. _"I already took care of the problem."_

"Well how did you find all this out in less than sixteen hours?" Rhiannon asked.

_"With a little help of a nine-hundred-years-old riff-raff that decided to make an appearance,"_ Rebekah retorted cryptically. _"I'll fill you in on the details once you get back."_

"Okay," Rhiannon said pinching the bridge of her nose. "Look, we're about to go to the bank to pick up the grimoar. I'll call you when we get to our hotel room so we can send you the copy of the spell."

_"Alright,"_ Rebekah said. _"Say hi to Elijah for me will you?"_

"Will do."

Switzerland was truly incredible, Rhiannon decided as they drove through a gorgeous historical centre to their hotel.

"We have to get back here one day," she muttered under her breath looking out of the window.

"Enjoying the view I take it?" Elijah joked stroking her thigh lightly.

"Very much so," she retorted with a wide grin plastered on her face. She'd never been more gorgeous, Elijah thought to himself as he watched her admire the view. Her face was lit up with utter amazement and he felt his heart swell a little at the thought of taking her places she'd never been before. He just hoped there actually will be time for that because he had great plans for them. The fear of dying and losing her still lingered somewhere in the back of his mind.

Rhiannon dropped her bag in the middle of their hotel room with a huff. "I need shower."

"Go ahead," Elijah muttered. "I'm going to send this spell to Niklaus so he can get Bonnie to unlink us. The sooner we get this over with, the better."

"I couldn't agree more," Rhiannon muttered standing behind Elijah and snaking her arms around his waist. She rested her head against his back as he stroked her arms lightly. Then placed chaste kiss on his shoulder blade, freeing her hands, muttering: "I'm going to the shower. You know, if you decide you can't wait until I'm done, you can always join me after you send the spell to Klaus."

She started walking towards the bathroom, taking off her sweater along with her T-shirt, shooting him an innocent look that wouldn't fool anybody making his blood boil with desire. He couldn't help but smirk at how comfortable and bold she became around him.

The photocopy of Esther's spell was sent to Klaus within minutes and Elijah was following the trail made of Rhiannon's clothes discarding his as he went. He reached the bathroom butt naked and climbed into the shower, closing his eyes sighing contently as the first scorching hot droplets of water hit him. Soon he felt Rhiannon's hands on his face directing his head downwards so she could kiss him. She was a pretty tall girl but still had to stand on her toes in order to be level with him. He let her kiss him lightly, snaking his arms around her body, caressing the wet soapy skin of her back. Soon she deepened the kiss and it was becoming significantly harder for Elijah to restrain himself.

He picked her up, making her cross her legs around his waist and slammed her against the wall, kissing her neck hungrily, making her moan so loud, he was sure everybody on their floor could hear them. He didn't care. She started to grind against him making his head drop back as he grunted, letting her name pass his lips. She licked and nibbled at his exposed throat, letting her eyes turn that gorgeous golden-amber color. He couldn't take it any longer and with a steaming kiss he thrust inside of her making her yelp with pleasure. She rested her forehead against his as they moved in a mutual rhythm that sent them over the edge, collapsing to the shower ground minutes later. After they recovered enough to stand up again, they washed each other, kissing and caressing their bodies.

Moments later they were resting on the king size bed, smothered by fluffy bathrobes, going through the menu trying to decide what to order for dinner. Originally they planned to go eat outside, but they were both pleasantly exhausted and eventually decided against it. Elijah was on the phone with a room service when Rhiannon's phone rang again. She looked at the number and sighed. If he was calling, there was definitely something going on.

"I'm listening," she said picking up the phone.

"_Is this a good time to speak?"_ Matt Donovan asked. She got him off the vervain couple of days ago, and then compelled him to report everything the gang had been up to. He was her friend and she hated to do this to him, but she didn't have any other choice. With people so sly like Damon standing against them, they needed to be one step ahead. It appeared that Klaus' fearful reputation failed to intimidate the supernatural residence of Mystic Falls enough to leave the Originals well alone.

"As good as any," Rhiannon muttered with an edge to her voice. "So what do you have for me?"

"_There's more white oak Rebekah doesn't know about," _Matt said making Rhiannon jump up on the bed. _"The Wickery Bridge sign that mister Saltzman was supposed to restore. It's made from the same wood. Salvatores have it and. They made about a dozen stakes out of it."_

"Oh my god," Rhiannon muttered, sitting back on the bed. "Anything else?"

"_Yea, they're looking for an opportunity to kill,"_ Matt elaborated further.

"Yea, I figured as much," Rhiannon said. "Forget we ever had this conversation. Call me if there's any news."

As soon as Matt hung up, she was dialing Rebekah. Elijah was looking at her with what could only be described as a mixture of rage and terror. The look on his face caused her almost physical pain but she couldn't tear her eyes away in fear that he'd disappear if she did.

"C'mon Bekah!" Rhiannon growled into her phone. That didn't help though as it went to the voicemail. She tried dialing Klaus this time.

"Well little wolf," Klaus' voice answered. "How's Switzerland treating you?"

"Klaus tell me that the unlinking spell worked," Rhiannon said with panic in her voice.

"Yes, it did," Klaus retorted, satisfied yet worried because of her tone. "As a matter of fact, I'm showing Bonnie out as we speak."

"Thank god," Rhiannon said, relieved fractionally. "We have another problem though. I compelled Matt Donovan to spy on Salvatores and he just called me that they are in possession of twelve white oak stakes made from the Wickery Bridge sign. It's not over Klaus."

"Bloody hell," Klaus growled into his phone and hung up.

They were waiting for some news. Any news, really. Rhiannon was pacing through the bedroom nervously, biting her nails to shreds while Elijah sat on the sofa with his hands propped on his thighs massaging his temples lightly. Not two hours ago he was having amazing shower sex with his girlfriend and now he was sitting here, waiting to find out if they had to move to the other side of the planet. He hated the idea of running. He and his siblings had done it for almost thousand years. He really didn't feel like doing it again, especially if the reason for them to run was a group of scrawny baby vamps. His pride shuddered at the idea of being chased off by the likes of Salvatore brothers and their merry little gang, but it was better than dying, or letting them hurt Rhiannon.

When the phone rang half hour later, the both jumped up in anticipation. Elijah, being faster, answered the phone.

"Rebekah," he breathed out. "Did you get the stakes?"

"Yes and no," she retorted solemnly. "There are still two missing. Stefan went to retrieve them so we should be in the clear soon."

"That's good news," Elijah muttered, relief washing over him in intense waves.

"Elijah," Rebekah said. "Finn's dead."

"What?" Elijah cried out looking at Rhiannon who stood dead in her tracks couple of feet from him. "How?"

"Stefan killed him before we found out about stakes," Rebekah elaborated. "There's something else. After that, Sage went to find Stefan and kill him and she died. Out of the blue. And the guy she turned died as well. Just dropped dead."

"What does that mean?" Elijah asked although he was pretty sure he could guess the answer.

"It means that if you kill an Original, his entire bloodline will die with him."


	22. Chapter 22 - The Witch Bitch Returns

**CHAPTER 22 – THE WITCH BITCH RETURNS**

"Breathe Rebekah, we're gonna make it to the dance," Rhiannon yelled into her phone trying to drown out Rebekah's banter. "You really think I'd miss it?"

"_Right, great,"_ she muttered into her phone, a little ashamed. _"You already got your outfit?"_

"Damn right I do," Rhiannon retorted stuffing the last of her clothes into her suitcase and glaring at Elijah who snickered at the conversation with his baby sister from behind his newspaper. "You think Elijah has any of his suits from the 20s?"

That got his attention, making him choke on his coffee and now it was Rhiannon's turn to snicker at him.

"_You honestly think you can convince Elijah to go to a high school decade dance?" _Rebekah asked, her words drooping with sarcasm. _"Hate to burst your bubble, but hell will freeze over before he agrees to that."_

"Ha, hundred bucks says I'll convince him," Rhiannon retorted making Elijah glare at her. He was in a deep trouble now and he knew it.

"_Easiest hundred bucks I'll ever win,"_ Rebekah quipped playfully. _"By all means, go ahead and try. It would to him good to get rid of that giant stick that's lodged up his arse."_

"We're almost on our way to the airport," Rhiannon retorted, trying hard not to burst out laughing. Elijah sure was uptight as hell, but not around her. At least not anymore.

"You're not really going to make me go to the dance are you?" Elijah asked with a dread in his voice. She didn't have a chance to respond, since her phone rang once more.

"It's Matt," Rhiannon muttered, worried. "I should take this."

"_Hey,"_ the quarterback greeted her after she picked up the phone.

"What do you got for me?" she asked with a knot in her stomach.

"_So you know we killed Finn last night do you?"_ Matt started. _"And after that all of his bloodline started dying out too."_

"Yea," Rhiannon muttered giving Elijah one worried look. "Go on."

"_Well Damon is desperately trying to find out who created his and Stefan's bloodline," _Matt started making Rhiannon's blood boil with rage once again. _"There's still one stake out there and if they get their hands on it and it turns out that Klaus didn't sire their bloodline, they're still going to try to take him down."_

"Shit," Rhiannon muttered. "Anything else?"

"_Yea, Tyler's back in town,"_ Matt retorted. "Says he broke the sire bond."

"Alright," Rhiannon muttered, her voice strained, and saying "forget we had this conversation," she ended the call.

"Rhiannon," Elijah murmured looking at her from the other side of the room. His eyes wide with genuine fear.

"Did you - ?" she started but couldn't finish the sentence.

"Sire their bloodline?" Elijah finished for her. "No."

"Well what if it wasn't Klaus who sired them?" she asked pacing around in panic.

"Rhiannon –" Elijah tried to stop her rambling.

"They're gonna try and kill him and if they succeed, I'm done too," she continued. "I'm sure I'm not on their list of loved ones to protect them anymore. Oh god."

"Rhiannon!" Elijah yelled at her, grabbing her by her shoulders and shaking her lightly, making her snap out of it. "Calm down. It was Klaus who sired their bloodline, I know that for a fact. They're never going to go against him. You're safe, sweetheart."

"Are you sure?" she asked looking up at him.

"Positive," he murmured, giving her a small smile. "You have nothing to worry about."

"I'll believe that when the last stake is destroyed," Rhiannon muttered burying her face in his chest. As if on cue, Elijah's phone rang.

"It's Rebekah," he muttered answering the phone not letting go of her as she grabbed at lapels of his jacket nervously.

"_Elijah,"_ his younger sister said. _"We found the last stake. It's destroyed. We're safe."_

"Thank god," Elijah muttered tightening his grip on Rhiannon.

"_Are you coming home?"_ Rebekah asked. Rhiannon looked at Elijah incredulously. They spoke together not half hour ago and she told her they were practically on their way to the airport. She shrugged it off as a result of an eventful evening.

"Yes, we're on our way Bekah," Elijah retorted hanging up the phone.

"I'm almost ready!" Rhiannon yelled through the closed door of their bathroom, making some finishing touches to her outfit. She arranged her head into a faux curly bob, finishing it with a gorgeous jeweled head band, Elijah gave her along with sparkling art-deco earrings. Her make-up was intense and daring, perfectly matching her black beaded dress that sparkled with every move she made, just like the true flapper. She was beyond excited about this particular dance, not just because it sounded like a lot of fun, but also because she was going with Elijah. It turned out that he didn't need that much convincing after all. She was touching up her crimson red lipstick when Elijah walked in wearing his period suit, his hair slicked back, looking as dapper as ever. He stopped dead in his tracks, admiring the view in front of him.

"Wow," he muttered making Rhiannon smirk at him.

"Wow yourself," she retorted putting one hand on her hip looking him up and down.

They arrived to the dance just as a slow swing song started to play and before Rhiannon had enough time to admire the decorated gym, Elijah swept her to the dance floor. Holding her as close as possible he hummed with along with the song contently, placing a chaste kiss on her forehead.

"Thank you for coming here with me tonight," Rhiannon muttered laying her head on his chest.

"It's my pleasure," he muttered twirling her around.

"I had no idea Klaus would be coming to the dance as well," Rhiannon muttered pointing to Elijah's younger brother who was currently dancing with Caroline who looked a little uncomfortable to say the least.

"I'm sure that's Rebekah's work," Elijah said chuckling under his breath. "Where is she by the way? I haven't seen her all evening."

"I have no idea," Rhiannon retorted. "I haven't seen her in the house as well."

"I don't like it," Elijah said. "There's Klaus," he said pointing towards his brother who stormed out of the gym.

They caught up with him just as he was stopped at the sight of a salt line that was stretching around the entire school.

"Please tell me that's not what I think it is," Rhiannon muttered weakly.

"I wish I could," Elijah said squeezing her hand.

"Guess who's back," Stefan chimed in.

"Esther," Klaus muttered in horror.

"Well damn," Rhiannon summed up the situation.

They were all standing in a darkened classroom watching Bonnie chant over the candles trying to find the loophole in Esther's spell.

"She does this all the time, doesn't she?" Jamie, Bonnie's date, asked with a concern in his voice.

"What's taking so long?" Klaus asked impatiently. "All boundary spells have a loophole."

"People are walking right out of the dance," Matt said walking into the classroom. "Right past the barrier."

"Well if Matt and I can leave we can stop Esther ourselves," Jeremy suggested. "We just gotta find out where she is."

"That's suicide Jeremy," Stefan retorted.

"Suicide would be disappointing me," Klaus chimed in vamp-speeding towards Jamie and grabbing him by his throat. "Now work your magic witch."

"Knock it off Klaus!" Rhiannon yelled starting towards him but Elijah beat her to it, grabbing his brother and shoving him away from the poor guy, muttering threateningly: "Control yourself brother. You really think she'll help us if you kill her date?" he said turning around and smiling at Bonnie who was glaring right back at him. "Now, Bonnie, how about a little locator spell?"

"Please Bon," Rhiannon pleaded. "We have to find them before it's too late."

Soon they knew Esther's location when Bonnie announced that Esther's not fighting her anymore. That could mean that either something good or something bad happened. Minutes later they were all walking away from the dance and towards the old cemetery. When they arrived there, Esther was dead and Alaric, being himself for the time being, was in a transition to a vampire as strong as any of the Originals, if not stronger. Luckily he decided to not go through with it and die. Elijah was glad he made the decision, so they didn't have to kill him themselves and turn the Mystic Falls supernatural residence against them for good.

Klaus grabbed Esther's body and bolted. Both Elijah and Rhiannon felt as if they were intruding on the last moments of Alaric's life so they decided to leave as well.

"What a night," Rhiannon muttered, sitting on the bed and knocking off her heels.

"Indeed," Elijah said loosening his tie then walking towards her, massaging her feet lightly almost making her purr.

"I can't help but feel sorry for Alaric," she muttered sadly.

"I know," Elijah retorted scooting closer to her and put one arm around her, stroking her cheek with the other lightly. "He doesn't deserve what Esther did to him."

"No, he doesn't," Rhiannon agreed, trying to hold back tears. "I wonder what happened to Rebekah."

"She's back," Elijah muttered into her hair. "She's in her room, moping."

"Well I'm glad she's okay," she said. "And your mother's gone. At least for now. We're safe."

"We're safe," Elijah repeated.


	23. Chapter 23 -The History Lesson From Hell

**CHAPTER 23 – THE HISTORY LESSON FROM HELL**

"So where would we go?" Rhiannon asked the next morning, stretching out on the bed. "I'm sure Klaus has already half of the house packed by now."

"Hmmm, I'm thinking an abandoned island," Elijah muttered cuddling close to her breathing in her scent. "Far, far away from all this drama. God knows we deserve it."

"That sounds amazing," Rhiannon mumbled happily.

"However," Elijah started again. "I think you should finish the high school first. You only have couple of months left."

"Yea, I've been thinking about it too," she agreed. "You're probably right. Do you think Damon and others will behave though?"

"I don't see why not," Elijah said. "Their main problem is with Klaus. With him gone, I don't think they would cause any further trouble. We'll stay out of each other's hair and maybe you get to restore your relationships with your friends."

They way he said it only assured her that he partially blames himself for the current state of things between her and her old girlfriends. Sighing, she said: "Yea, that'd be nice. Although I don't know if we'll ever be able to come back to the way things were before. They made it blatantly obvious that me, or the people I care about, are not high on their priority list."

"I know," he muttered solemnly. He was about to say something else but was cut off by Rebekah knocking on the door, yelling: "Rhiannon! Get your arse up! The clean up committee starts in fifteen minutes!"

"Shit!" she muttered and almost flew out of the bed hauling her clothes hurriedly on her way to the bathroom. "Give me five minutes!"

"You're late!" Rebekah almost snarled at Caroline who turned up to help clean up the place. "Clean up committee started at eight o'clock."

"It's like eight o'two!" Caroline objected.

"Exactly," Rebekah went on. "We managed to turn up on time."

"Not that I had a say in the matter," Rhiannon muttered trying not to yawn.

"Excuse me," Rebekah barked at her. "I'm here and I didn't even get to attend the dance I organized!"

"I know, I know," Rhiannon retorted apologetically. "I was just kidding."

"Alright, alright," Rebekah said walking towards the big trash bin, dumping all the empty plastic glasses there.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Caroline said making both Rebekah and Rhiannon to look up at her. "I mean I know you like hated her and everything but… still… I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry about your teacher," Rebekah reciprocated. "He seemed like a nice guy."

"He was," Caroline retorted. At that point Rhiannon had trouble trying to hold back tears. She really was sorry. Even though her and Mystic Falls gang weren't on the best of terms at the moment, she still mourned Alaric. "I'm gonna get started on the gym," she muttered and escaped the room.

She was walking through empty hallways when she thought she heard someone blur behind her. She turned around listening closely to her surroundings, but then shrugged it off. It was probably just Caroline or Rebekah. She was just placing her hand on the door handle when she heard it again, this time way closer to her. She jumped up turning around but again, there was no one there.

"Yea this is not funny!" Rhiannon called out into the empty hallway.

"You're right, it isn't," she heard Alaric's voice growl from behind her. She turned around again to see him stand in front of her, his eyes blood-red and the expression on his face murderous. Before she could do anything else, he snapped her neck and everything went black.

Elijah was sitting behind the kitchen counter, trying his best to ignore the mess Klaus's hybrids made while packing the house up, nonchalantly ignoring the loud bang that would suggest that they dropped something heavy and most likely invaluable. He perked up, however, when he heard Rebekah's panicked voice coming from the living room. First he thought it was just one of her temper tantrums but then he heard Alaric's name.

"What is going on?" he asked as he vamp-ran into the room.

"Alaric Saltzman just tried to kill me," Rebekah elaborated.

"But how? He's supposed to be dead," Elijah retorted incredulously.

"Well he's not," Rebekah went on. "And he's a vampire thanks to mother's spell and with a white oak stake that can't kill him. He's stronger Nick. Too strong."

"Where is he now?" Klaus asked dispassionately.

"He's stuck at the school without a daylight ring," Rebekah elaborated. "But as soon as night falls he'll come after us."

"Wait," Elijah interrupted. "Where is Rhiannon?"

"He… uhm," Rebekah stammered.

"Bekah," Elijah growled. "Don't make me ask again."

"He's got her and Caroline at school," Rebekah muttered, ashamed of herself. "I'm sorry. I had no other choice."

"Alright," Klaus chimed in. "I'll collect Elena and we'll be on our way."

"What about Caroline?" Rebekah asked. "And Rhiannon? We can't just leave them to be killed because of us!"

"Your tone implies that I should care?" Klaus asked with his usual bravado.

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Elijah asked, trying hard not to yell at his younger brother.

"Oh c'mon Elijah," Klaus objected. "You're seriously asking me to risk my life to save your latest plaything? You must be out of your mind!"

At this point Elijah couldn't hold himself back anymore and lunged at his younger brother landing a good solid punch onto his left cheek. Klaus didn't hesitate and reciprocated with equal fervor.

"Stop it!" Rebekah yelled trying to pull them apart. "Stop it you two!"

Elijah stopped first, panting, and readjusted his shirt while glaring at Klaus. "I'll get in touch with Salvatores."

When Rhiannon started to perceive the world around her she realized she was in a lot of pain. Her hands were tied behind her back with a vervain soaked rope that was burning her skin continuously and two metal stakes were plunged into each one of her thighs, pinning her to the chair effectively. She also realized she wasn't alone. Sitting two rows in front of her was Caroline whose hands were pinned to the desk with two pencils and her mouth was gaged with a vervain soaked rag. She was sobbing in pain and Rhiannon wasn't far from following closely behind her. She tried to free her hands but to no avail. Then she realized Alaric was watching her casually from behind his desk.

"What the hell do you want from us?!" she snarled at him. This was clearly no longer Alaric she knew.

"Well not that I need to explain myself to you, but I'm using you as bait," Alaric elaborated. "Caroline to get Elena here, and you to lure out your Original boyfriend and his siblings."

"You're crazy if you think this is actually going to work," Rhiannon bit back with as much defiance as she could muster at that moment. Truthfully, she was terrified. As if on cue and just in time to prove her wrong, Elena barged into the classroom. She, of course, fell for the whole "go free them yourself" trap which ended in Alaric maniacally lecturing her on how vampires were the bad guys. Then when he forced her to kill Caroline, she smashed the beaker with vervain water against his face gaining just enough time to free Caroline and loosen Rhiannon's tied hands a little before Alaric caught up to her and threw her out of the classroom.

Caroline bolted and Rhiannon didn't really blame her. She just hoped she'll be able to loosen the rope and get the stakes out fast enough to try and stop Alaric from squeezing the life out of Elena. She heard the noises of struggle somewhere down the hall and she managed to wiggle her hands out of the vervain ropes. Stakes would be a much bigger problem though. For one, her hands were still badly burnt from vervain and stakes were shoved through her thighs with the force that made it impossible to get them out on her own. She was about to start crying out of a sheer despair when Elijah barged in the room with a furious expression on his face. He gestured for her to be quiet. She muffled her screams with the sleeve of his jacket as he made a quick work of the stakes.

"Can you walk?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"I don't think so," she whispered back. "I'm gonna need a minute. Leave me here. Go help the others."

"Like hell I am," Elijah shot her down making her raise an eyebrow at him. "Rebekah's with Klaus and Salvatore boys. They're gonna take Alaric down. I'm going to take you home."

"Elijah," Rhiannon objected.

"I'm done talking about it, now c'mon," he retorted whisking her up in his arms and carried her to the safety of the house.

Elijah just left Rhiannon resting upstairs and went downstairs. He heard Klaus come back home and he knew Rebekah bolted. He went into the living room and found Elena strapped to a chair, the blood being drained from her veins into blood bags.

"What is this Niklaus?" Elijah asked incredulously.

"Exactly what you think it is," Klaus retorted casually from the sofa. "As it turns out, Alaric's life is linked to Elena's so I'm draining her of her blood, killing the history teacher in the process."

"Have you gone utterly insane?" Elijah objected sternly.

"It's the only way to kill him once and for all," Klaus retorted.

"What happened to the plan to desiccate him?" he continued.

"I'm done with half measures," Klaus shot him down.

"Well I'm not," Elijah bit back walking towards Elena.

"You're not going to have a say in the matter," he heard Klaus mutter from behind him and then he felt the dagger in his heart. "I'm sorry Elijah."

Rhiannon woke up half hour later, confused. She was in their room, her legs were completely healed and there were couple more blood bags ready for her in the ice bucket on the night stand. However, Elijah was nowhere to be found. She got up, trying to find anybody but the house sounded empty. Then she heard a commotion coming from the living room and when she hurried up there, she saw Elena lying on the floor and Klaus pinning Tyler against the wall about to rip him to shreds.

She hurried towards them breaking Klaus' arm and freeing Tyler from his grasp. Then Stefan and Damon appeared from somewhere and all of them grabbed Klaus as Stefan plunged his fingers in his chest making Bonnie work her magic and desiccate the Original hybrid. Soon there was no need to hold Klaus back so Rhiannon backed off and almost tripped over Elijah's daggered body. Poor Elijah, always suffering the consequences of Klaus' righteous madness, she thought to herself as she pulled the dagger out.


	24. Chapter 24 - The Departed

**CHAPTER 24 – THE DEPARTED**

"Alright Jeremy," Rhiannon said into her phone, sitting on the bed. "Sit tight, I'm on my way."

"What is going on?" Elijah asked coming out of the shower in a thoughtful frame of mind. It's really been a long day. After Rhiannon pulled the dagger out of his chest he was understandably pissed and let Salvatore brothers take care of Klaus' body. He knew they wouldn't kill him because he sired their bloodline and frankly, he couldn't care less at that moment. Now that he'd had time to think about it, he was starting to have second thoughts.

"Elena's in the hospital," Rhiannon answered his question, shaking him out of his thoughts momentarily. "She fainted and there was blood apparently, so Jeremy called nine-one-one."

"Well he could've just called one of us and we could heal her," Elijah called out from the walk-in closet, getting dressed.

"I know, but he's not our biggest fan as of late," she remarked making Elijah shrug in agreement. "Anyway, I told him to sit tight until I get there and help him get her home."

"Do you think it's the best idea for you to wander the streets alone after the sunset?" Elijah retorted chidingly. "You know Alaric will be out and about right?"

"Which is all the more reason we need to get Elena out of that hospital and into her house where he hasn't been invited in," Rhiannon reasoned with him getting from the bed and looking for her leather jacket.

"I know I just don't like you going alone," he said from behind her, snaking his arms around her waist and kissing her temple lightly. Turning around in his arms she twined her arms around his neck saying: "I know, but I'm more than capable of taking care of myself by now and you know that."

She kissed him making all his further protests futile, and then stroking his hair lightly, she said: "I'll be back soon. Why don't you call Salvatore boys and find out where they are in the meantime?"

"How did you—", Elijah asked incredulously.

"Come of it Elijah," Rhiannon teased placing her hands on his chest, smiling lightly. "Don't you think I know you enough by now to know that there's no way you'd left Salvatore boys handle Klaus' body? No matter how mad you're at him, he's your brother and with what all your resources and experience I'm sure you'll be able to protect him better than anybody else."

"You're amazing, you know that?" he whispered tightening his grip on her and kissed her. "Do hurry up and please be careful. I'll talk to Rebekah."

"I'll be back before you notice I'm gone," she murmured with a light smile. "I love you."

Hour and a half later they were all sitting in Elena's kitchen.

"Just listen to what Elijah has to say," Rhiannon pleaded looking around at her frenemies as she liked to call them at the moment.

"All we need is to take that stake away from him," Elijah said after seeing that no one was going to interrupt them or tell them to go to hell as he was half expecting them to do. "Once he's been disarmed and the weapon's in my possession, my family will scatter to the ends of the Earth and Alaric will follow us."

"How do you know he won't stay here and terrorize Mystic Falls?" Jeremy asked.

"C'mon Jer, he only has one lifespan to try and get rid of all vampires and the best way to do it is by coming straight to the source," Rhiannon retorted. "Do you really think he's going to waste his time with you guys? He'll come after Elijah and his family."

"She's right," Elijah added.

"And you'll just run?" Stefan asked doubtfully.

"We've done it before," Elijah retorted matter-of-factedly. "Klaus and Rebekah spent the better part of thousand years evading my father. What's another half century while Elena's able to live out the rest of her natural life?"

"We finally stopped him Elijah," Elena protested. "After everything that he's done to us I can't just let you bring him back."

"I give you my word that, Elena, I will not revive Klaus within yours not even within your children's lifetimes," Elijah reasoned. "Perhaps that'll finally teach him some manners."

"Yea," Rhiannon chimed in. "We all could use some Klaus-free time."

"Why should she trust you?! All you've done was screw her over," Matt chimed in with so much hostility. The others were looking at them with so much self-righteousness that it made Rhiannon want to slap it off of their faces.

"Are you even listening to yourself?!" Rhiannon stood up abruptly and all but snarled at them, in spite of Elijah's warning look. "How many times have you merry lot tried to dagger him or kill him simply because you can't get your heads out of your asses long enough to see that he's trying to help you?! All Elijah's done was in retaliation to your continuous attempts to screw him and his family over. If I were you I'd sit down, shut up and listen to what he's got to say, because if you don't we all may well end up dead within a week!"

"Well I would apologize for Rhiannon's outburst," Elijah said grabbing her hand and pulling at it making her sit back down, giving her a pointed look that suggested she should try and keep her temper. "But she's absolutely right. I've always kept my word, even when I didn't have the slightest reason to do so, and I'm not about to stop now. You should also consider this. Elena could've been dead the instant I walked through that door tonight. So, Elena, I leave it to you to make the decision whether to trust me, or not."

"_Not!"_ Damon yelled from his phone. _"Hello?! Did that concussion give you brain damage?! His lunatic siblings will kill you the first chance they get!"_

"Rebekah and Kol honored the terms," Elijah retorted a little irritated. "If you return Klaus' body to us, Elena will come to no harm. Do we have a deal?"

"_No!" _Damon chimed in again. _"No, no, no , no. Did I mention NO?!"_

Stefan, although very reluctantly, said: "Elena, it's up to you."

"_Oh, c'mon!" _Damon cried out.

"Why do you want Klaus' body?" Elena asked.

"He's my brother," Elijah retorted calmly. "We remain together."

It seemed like everything important has been said since nobody else felt like contributing to the conversation. Rhiannon smiled at her friend encouragingly, saying: "You know it's a right call to make."

After a moment of hesitation, Elena finally said. "We have a deal."

"That went quite well," Rhiannon remarked sitting next to Elijah at the porch swing of the Gilbert house. Vaguely she remembered how she sat there couple of months ago after she arrived from Seattle and waited for Elena to come home. So much had happened since then that it seemed like ages ago.

"Yes," Elijah agreed. "Although, you still have a lot to learn about the art of negotiation, especially when it comes to keeping your temper," he continued chidingly.

"I know I fucked up, but I couldn't help myself," she said apologetically. "For some reason they think they're so much better than any of you and it just pisses me off so much that I—"

Her rant was interrupted by Elijah gently grabbing her chin and kissing her senseless. Thanking deities that she was already sitting, otherwise she would slump down on the ground and dissolve into a puddle of mush, she drew in a sharp breath after he broke the kiss and murmured: "Although not helpful, your little intervention was very much appreciated."

"Well I'm glad," she retorted smirking at him. "So where would we go after we get Klaus' body and the stake from Alaric?"

"No Rhiannon… I refuse to sentence you to half-century of running and not being able to settle anywhere for longer than couple of months," Elijah said looking at her, trying to look stern and unyielding, but only with marginal success. She could see he didn't want to leave her behind, but being the infuriatingly chivalrous man, he wanted something much better for her than that.

"Now I know you're not asking me to spend next sixty or so years without you, are you?" Rhiannon asked incredulously.

"You shouldn't have to live like this," Elijah retorted, still somewhat determined. "Constantly looking over your shoulder, dodging enemies my family's made over the centuries. I don't want this for you."

"I understand that but you need to understand that I don't care about that," she objected. "I love you and I want to be with you no matter the circumstances. If you love me as much as you claim to, then you'll respect my choice. That is if you still want me and I can see it in your eyes that you don't want me to stay behind. I know you're trying to do what's best for me but how about you let me decide what that is. And I think after centuries of putting everybody else before you, you deserve to be a little selfish."

"You are infuriatingly stubborn you know that?" Elijah muttered in response not quite looking at her. "But you also make a lot of sense for eighteen-year-old woman."

"That's all part of my charm," she retorted jokingly. "So does that mean you're done trying to drive me away?"

"It would appear so," he said smirking at her and kissing her once more before they were rudely interrupted by Stefan saying it was time to go.

They've been waiting in the forest for what seemed like hours when Elijah heard the distant muttering of Stefan talking with Damon on the phone. He couldn't quite make out the words but Stefan's tone of voice had his heart skip couple of beats as he clutched Rhiannon's hand in his. They made it to Stefan just as equally freaked out Caroline came to a halt in front of them asking: "Was that Damon? What's going on?"

"Stefan?" Rhiannon asked shakily. The look on the young vampire's face confirmed her fears. She squeezed Elijah's hand as much as possible given that he was already crushing hers.

"It's Klaus," Stefan said after a moment of horrified silence. "Alaric staked him."

"Oh god," Rhiannon muttered and started to slump towards the ground only to be caught by Elijah. His grip was rigid as he pressed Rhiannon tightly against him, holding onto her for dear life. He seemed to have gone into a shock of some sort as he was still looking at Stefan, his eyes wide with terror and filled with tears.

Caroline was gone, probably running to tell Tyler what happened and say their goodbyes before they would start to die, one by one.

Elijah couldn't decide what hurt more – the fact that his brother was dead or that Rhiannon would follow closely behind him. The pain was so overwhelming that for the first time in almost thousand years of his existence he considered shutting his humanity off. He was sure he couldn't possibly survive losing his brother and his love at the same time. He felt like either he shuts it off or he goes insane right then and there. It took him couple of minutes until he realized that somebody was shaking him and calling his name.

"ELIJAH!" Rhiannon screamed, shaking him violently. It wasn't until she slapped him hard enough to almost make his head spin that he snapped out of it. He was still holding her in a death grip and she didn't seem like she was about to protest. She was gripping lapels of his jacket and there were tears streaming down her face. He looked into her eyes and probably for the first time he saw them darken with a genuine fear. Even before, when she only knew him as her kidnapper, the fear in her eyes was tainted with defiance and fire he'd grown to love so much. Now all that was left in there was fear.

"Rhiannon, I don't know what to do" he muttered stroking her face lightly. "I can't lose you. You can't die on me. I need you."

"Well if you have an idea on how to stop it, I'm all ears," she retorted through tears, trying so hard to pull herself together, to be brave for him. "I… I don't even know what else I should say other than I love you," she said smiling despite the tears that continued to roll down her face. "You are strong and you still have Rebekah. She just lost her brother and she's going to need you beside her. You still have your sister. You can help each other through it. You are survivors and you will survive this, even though it seems impossible right now."

"I can't…. I can't," Elijah muttered shaking his hand. "I…," he really was in loss for words so he grabbed her and kissed her until they both slumped towards the ground. "I love you Rhiannon," he whispered sitting on the ground and cradling her in his lap, stroking her hair out of her face.

"I love you too Elijah," she muttered into his neck trying to enjoy last few moments with him and waiting for the darkness to come and take her.

Elijah lost track of time as he held Rhiannon in his arms, desperately fighting tears but with zero success. They weren't talking. Everything that they needed to say to each other had been spoken and he was just trying to enjoy the closeness of her body and her heart beating against his chest until it would all be taken away from him.

"He's gone Elijah," he heard Rebekah mutter from behind him. "There was nothing I could do to stop it."

He jumped up, closely followed by Rhiannon who ran towards Rebekah and hugged her tightly, muttering: "I'm so sorry Becks. I'm so sorry."

"Tyler Lockwood's dead," Rebekah said crying even harder. "I overheard Caroline calling Stefan on my way here."

Rhiannon almost fainted as she heard that. Elijah was next to her within a second, asking: "How are you feeling?"

"I don't know," Rhiannon muttered. "I'm scared shitless but other than that I feel normal."

"It took Sage about an hour before she got sick," Elijah said. "It's been longer than that by now."

"The rest of them are fine too," Rebekah chimed in, making Rhiannon sigh in relief.

"What the hell is happening then?" Rhiannon asked. "If Tyler's dead, I should be dead too, I mean… I'm certainly not complaining, but…. I don't understand what's going on."

"How's this possible?" Elijah muttered. "C'mon, we should get you inside." He couldn't help but notice she was shivering. The emotional strain was taking its toll on them.

"What if I'm still going to die?" Rhiannon protested.

"You're not," Elijah retorted firmly. "It would've already happened."

"So I'm safe?" she murmured, slightly dazed.

"You're safe," he whispered and hugged her fiercely. He was sure that if he didn't have her to hold onto, he would collapse from the sheer relief that she was alive.

"So how on Earth am I still alive?" Rhiannon asked getting out of her jacket after they returned to the mansion.

"I have no idea, but we should start packing," Elijah retorted heading straight for the closet. He had a suspicion as to what actually happened to his younger brother but he kept it to himself for the time being.

"Yea, I'm on it," Rhiannon said grabbing her shirts and other clothing from her drawers. "And where the hell is Rebekah?"

Just as Elijah was about to answer, Rhiannon's phone rang once again. It was Stefan. Elijah watched Rhiannon sit on the bed with a stony expression on her face before she muttered: "Elena's dead."


	25. Chapter 25 - The Growing Pains

**CHAPTER 25 – THE GROWING PAINS**

„Elena's dead," Rhiannon muttered hanging up on Stefan and walking towards the bed, her eyes wide with shock as she was stopped mid-way by Elijah placing his hands on her shoulders with a very concerned look on his face.

"What happened?" he asked in a whisper looking down at the distressed woman in his arms.

"Rebekah," Rhiannon choked out. "She ran them off the Wickery Bridge."

"Oh god," Elijah muttered and enveloped her in a crushing hug, whispering "I'm sorry" into her hair. He finally felt the strangled sobs escape her mouth as she finally gave into her grief. He walked them slowly towards the sofa by the window, sitting down and dragging Rhiannon down onto his lap, cradling her and letting her cry herself to sleep.

Couple hours passed and Rhiannon was still sleeping in his arms, when her phone rang once again. He laid her down on the sofa as quietly as he could and grabbing her phone, he ran out into the hallway.

"Yes?" Elijah announced himself picking up her phone.

"Elijah?" he heard Stefan ask confused. "Where's Rhiannon?"

"Sleeping," he retorted. "Before you say anything, let me please apologize for my sister's actions. We were back at the house, packing and getting ready to draw Alaric away when you called. I am genuinely sorry for your loss. I know all to well how terrible it is to lose a loved one."

"Thank you," Stefan muttered into the phone. "But Elena's not dead."

"What do you mean?" Elijah asked utterly confused.

"Earlier when Jeremy brought her to the hospital, her injuries were worse than Meredith has led on. She used Damon's blood to heal her," Stefan said, pausing to either give Elijah time to process, or for himself to gather his thoughts.

"When Bekah, ran them off the bridge, she had Damon's blood in her system, didn't she?" Elijah asked incredulously.

"Yea.." Stefan agreed. "She's in transition."

"Oh dear," Elijah muttered. "How is she?"

"Don't know yet," Stefan retorted. "She's been in and out all night. I just thought Rhiannon should know."

"Yes, thank you for letting us know," Elijah said. "If there's anything we can help you with, just let us know."

"No, I think your family's done enough for one night," Stefan bit back with an edge to his voice.

"Right," Elijah retorted, not really surprised by his reaction. "Take care."

The young vampire hung up without a word and Elijah propped himself against the wall, sighing loudly with relief. He was glad Elena was alive…ish. He briefly contemplated whether to go tell Rhiannon now, or to tell her after she wakes up. He decided against the latter, because knowing her, she'd give him so much crap for not telling her right away.

He walked into the room to find her curled up at the sofa, just as he left her before answering the phone. He crouched beside her and caressed her tear-stained cheek softly.

"Rhiannon, darling, wake up," he murmured, softly rubbing her shoulder to bring her back into reality, but the only response he got from her was a soft whimper as she desperately clung to her dreamless sleep. "C'mon sweetheart, I need to tell you something."

Finally, she very reluctantly opened her eyes. "What is it Elijah?"

"C'mon sweetheart, sit up," he said helping her up, then sat down next to her, grabbing one of her hand. "Stefan called. Elena is not dead. She's in transition."

"What?! How?! When?!" she blurted out crushing Elijah's hand.

"Earlier when Jeremy rushed her to the hospital, her injuries were much worse than anyone of us thought. Meredith used Damon's blood to heal her and when Rebekah ran them off the bridge, his blood was still in her system."

"Oh wow," Rhiannon muttered, clearly undergoing another shock. "I don't know what to think. I mean… I'm glad she's alive… well sort of… but she never wanted to be a vampire. Honestly, I don't know how she's gonna cope with that."

"She has Salvatores to help her with that," Elijah retorted, snaking his arm around her shoulders. "Even you, if you want to help her out, which I'm sure you do. Now, how about we get some food in you and then we'll get some sleep. It's been one hell of a day."

Elijah woke up really early the next day, letting Rhiannon rest. The hunter was dead, so there was no need for running anymore. However, there was still one thing left unresolved and that was Klaus's mysterious death. He was hundred percent sure, Klaus sired the bloodline of the Mystic Falls supernatural gang. They should've all been dead. He thanked all the deities that came to mind that it didn't happen, but that could only mean one thing. Klaus was alive, and Elijah was pretty sure where he'd find him.

When Rhiannon woke up, it was almost two in the afternoon. She found a note from Elijah saying he had some urgent matter to attend to. She had a vague idea what that might be since the feeling that Klaus wasn't dead at all was nagging her ever since they found out that everybody except Tyler had survived.

She showered and was about to go down to fetch something to eat when she heard sounds of struggle coming from downstairs and when she got there, whoever attacked Rebekah was gone and she was laying on the ground with several shot wounds and a huge wooden stake lodged in her heart. Before she could do anything to help, she heard more shots and felt several needles prick the skin on her back and then everything turned black.

When Rhiannon came to her senses again, she realized she was tied to a steel bench in a moving van. The sirens of police cars accompanying them were making her head throb in pain. She tried to pry her hands free but to no avail.

"Vervain ropes…" Caroline muttered solemnely. "Looks like Alaric outed us all to the council."

"Well shit," Rhiannon muttered, seriously pissed.

"The council," Rebekah muttered drowsily. "What exactly do they think they can do to me?"

"Where the hell is Eli-" Rhiannon asked but was interrupted by something crashing into he van and knocking it over, making Rhiannon bang her head against the wall which didn't help her migraine at all.

When the van stopped moving, all three girls started to look around, panting heavily.

"What the hell happened?" Rebekah breathed out. Then the van door opened revealing Tyler. Rhiannon was too dumbstruck to see him alive that she didn't even realize that he was only freeing Caroline.

"Wait what about us?" Rebekah cried out.

"Keep 'em busy little sister," Tyler retorted winking at Rebekah. Now it all made sense. That sneaky bastard! Well she should be thankful that Klaus was alive because otherwise, her and her friends would've kicked the bucket too. Her thoughts were interrupted by the police officers barging into the van and shooting them with more vervain bullets to keep them weak. She was vaguely aware of being dragged somewhere where it smelled like cattle and then someone plopped her unceremoniously on a dusty ground.

After Elijah found Klaus' lifeless body hidden in the Lockwood cellar, just as he assume d, he returned to the mansion just to find it abandoned. The blood and vervain bullets on the ground made him panic momentarily. This was bad.

With poorly contained fury he dialed Damon's cell phone, but he wasn't picking up, so he decided to swing by the Gilbert house. Just as he was stepping up to the front porch he overheard signs of struggle and Damon hissing: "In what world are you the one who gets to live."

Sheriff and Meredith Fell were trying to stop him from squeezing the life out of Matt Donovan. Great, everybody's here. That will make finding out what happened whole lot easier. He barged in and peeled Damon off the poor quarterback, shoving him away and readjusting his suit.

"Care to tell me what is going on here?" Elijah asked in a tone of voice that suggested against trying his patience.

"The council," Meredith said. "They took Stefan and Elena. They got Caroline and Rebekah too. I bet they took Rhiannon as well."

"Do you have any idea where they might've taken them?" Elijah asked. He was livid now. He knew they wouldn't hurt them. They needed them as bait. But still, he couldn't help but worry.

"With Damon's vervain and Alaric's weapons, they could be anywhere," Sheriff retorted.

"C'mon guys think," Damon pleaded. "It takes a lot to hold a vampire. Reinforced steel, iron doors."

"Pastor has a cattle ranch," Matt suggested. "Those pens could be easily modified.

"It's remote, it's secluded," Meredith followed up.

"That must be it," Elijah agreed.

"Well guess what," Damon chimed in. "Looks like you'll get the chance to prove how sorry you really are. Let's go." He said and walked straight out of the house, closely followed by Elijah and Matt.

Minutes later they were parking down the road from the ranch. Getting out of the car, Elijah instructed: "You two distract the pastor and his men, I'm going to free them."

"And why should I take orders from you?" Damon barked with his typical attitude making it really hard for Elijah not to roll his eyes. A habit he seemed to adapt from the young hybrid who had been occupying most of his free time recently.

"I thought we established this long ago," Elijah retorted in an icy cold voice. "Don't make me repeat myself," he rebutted walking away, not wasting any more time with pointless discussion about "who's the boss".

He managed to sneak inside the barn covering his mouth with his handkerchief to hinder the effects of vervain, but his eyes were still burning. He almost tripped over one of the Pastor's guys, who had his head bashed in, and saw Elena licking her bloody fingers.

"Elijah?" Rebekah asked in choked voice.

"Rebekah," he sighed in relief, tearing open the pen she was in. "Where's Rhiannon?"

"Right next to Elena," Rebekah rasped out. "She's still unconscious, or too weak to talk. Elijah, we have to get out of here."

"I'm working on it," Elijah retorted freeing Stefan and Elena, then hurrying to Rhiannon's pen. She was leaning against the wall with her eyes closed, breathing heavily. He tore open the iron door and whisked her up, vamp-speeding to the fresh air with her in his arms.

"Rhiannon, sweetheart," he whispered smoothing the hair out of her face. "It's me. You're safe."

"Elijah?" she muttered weakly, grabbing onto his jacket. "Where are we?"

"Doesn't matter," He retorted kissing her forehead lightly. "I'm gonna take you home."

Before he could get away he heard a shot and felt a wooden bullet prick his shoulder causing him to drop Rhiannon on the ground. He turned around and came up face to face with one of the Pastor's men. His patience was gone and barring his fangs at the bloody fool, he ran up to him and snapped his neck like a twig.

"What a fucking moron," Rhiannon muttered trying to get up on her own as he was walking back towards her, helping her up.

"Indeed," he muttered wrapping his arm around her waist and walking her towards his car, where he had some blood bags ready.

Minutes later they were pulling up in front of the mansion and walking up to their room. As soon as they got into their room, they started to shed their clothing.

"Where do you keep the first aid kit?" Rhiannon asked taking off her jeans. She only had black boy shorts and white wife-beater on, which was extremely distracting.

"Elijah!" Rhiannon called out snapping her fingers in front of his face.

"Huh? What?" he muttered shaken out of his daze.

"The first aid kit!" Rhiannon insisted. "I need to dig out that bullet that's still in your shoulder."

"Ah, right," Elijah murmured. "In the bathroom, underneath the sink."

"I'll be right back," she retorted.

Seconds later he was stripped to his slacks and shoes and seated on a chair behind his writing desk with Rhiannon spreading out various tools to make the bullet extraction easier.

"The wound has already healed, but the bullet is still inside," Elijah muttered. "I can feel it scraping against my collarbone:"

"Sit tight," she instructed kissing the top of his head lightly, then sitting onto his lap, she started feeling around for the bullet. "This is gonna hurt like bitch."

"I know," he retorted trying to focus on her presence rather than on the throbbing pain in his shoulder. "I've been through worse— son of a bitch!" he cursed under his breath, bucking underneath her as she cut into his shoulder.

"You were sayin'?" she joked sticking a pair of forceps into the freshly cut wound. "Hold still baby, I'm almost done."

He couldn't help but admire her as she made a quick work of his bloody shoulder. She wasn't aware of how distracting she was, biting her lip like that – something she did often when she focused on something.

"Almost done," she murmured and seconds later, she managed to pull the bullet out. "There we go," she said triumphantly. "Not bad for my first surgery, huh? What do you think?"

"I think you don't realize how exquisite you are," Elijah said darkly, making her shiver. That was all she needed to hear, the instant arousal caused by his words and the smell of his blood making the veins under her eyes darken. Before she could stop herself, she licked the blood that made its way from his shoulder down his stomach.

"You have no idea what you're doing to me right now," Elijah muttered grabbing her by her arms, making her sit up straight in his lap. She involuntarily grinded against him, feeling the effect her actions had on him.

"I think I get the gist," she whispered against his mouth before kissing him hard, making him grab onto her, growling in response. He licked her lips asking for an access and she happily obliged.

"How are you feeling?" he asked after they broke the kiss, coming up for air.

"A little migrainish," she retorted stroking his hair lightly.

"I know just the cure for that," he said playfully standing up with her in his arms and started walking towards the bathroom.

"I'm all ears," she giggled in response.

Soon she was standing in front of the tub that was being filled with hot water and bubbles. The smell of sandal wood was intoxicating, making her relax against Elijah's body that was pressed tightly against her as he started to strip her of her remaining clothes.

As soon she was completely naked, she turned around making a little sound of disapproval at the fact that her lover was still more-less dressed. He started to work on his belt. She pulled his hands away, murmuring: "No, let me."

He dropped his hands beside his body and watched her working on his belt, pulling it out of his pants with one swift movement. The confidence behind her actions made him so hard, it almost hurt, knowing that he was the one who took that innocence and turned into this carnal insatiable lust. She was his. More importantly, she was his because she had chosen to be his.

He must have been lost in his thoughts for quite a while because soon he was completely naked and pushed against the bathroom wall with Rhiannon kissing, nipping and licking everywhere she could reach.

"Careful darling, the bathtub is about to overflow," he muttered breathlessly. She stopped and jumped towards the tub, shutting the water down. Elijah joined her, testing the water with his hand, then stepping in and submerging his naked form into the fragrant water, muttering: "Care to join me?"

"Like you have to ask," she retorted and stepped into the bath while holding onto his hand. Soon she was laying comfortably against his chest, enjoying the sensation of hot water caressing her body. He reached for a small cup and wetting her hair before lathering it up with her favorite shampoo.

"Mhhhmmm, that feels so good," she purred leaning against him. After he rinsed her hair out, it was time to pay attention to the rest of her body. He started to run the soapy wash cloth down her shoulders, then across her heaving chest, not leaving a single inch of her body unattended. The sensation of his hands running across her body made her entire body hum with anticipation.

After he was done, it was her turn to tend to him. She took the washcloth from him and straddling him, she started to wash away the dried blood and dirt from his body, kissing along his neck and collarbone. The sounds he was eliciting went straight to her gut. He grabbed her by her arms and pulled her down flush against his body, making her hum in approval. He didn´t wait for permission and started kissing her neck hungrily.

She ran her fingers down his chest and under the water, caressing along his impressive length, making him growl, biting her neck playfully.

"I need you baby," she moaned breathlessly into his mouth. "Now," her voice turned into a low growl. He didn't need to hear any more from her and with one powerful thrust that made her back arch, he was inside her and started moving slowly, torturously. She certainly didn't feel like complaining.

"You're pure perfection," he breathed out shivering from the utter pleasure. She was riding him, moving her pelvis in a circular motion and watching for his reaction. He tilted his head backwards, his mouth open in that perfect o-shape. Her eyes turned dark with lust, making her want to taste all of him. He looked deeply into her eyes and knew right away what was on her mind. He reached for one of his razors and made a cut on his throat.

"What are you doing?" she gasped watching the blood trickle down his neck and chest.

"I want you to taste all of me," he murmured, his eyes hooded with lust. "Go on, I know you want to."

"But what about the werewolf venom?" she objected.

"Unless you actually bite me, we're safe," he said caressing her back along her spine. "Have at it, before it heals."

She couldn't control the bloodlust anymore and with a low throaty growl, she enveloped the cut on his throat with her mouth, sucking at the dark liquid that was still seeping out of the small wound as she continued riding him relentlessly. After couple of moments she came up for the air, hissing with pleasure, the veins under her eyes dark, making her golden-amber eyes stand out.

"Your turn," she mumbled grabbing his hair and gently guiding his face towards the crook of her neck. She didn't have to tell him twice and soon he was enveloping her in a crushing embrace, biting her neck and sucking on her sweet, delicious blood while pounding into her vigorously. The sensation of it all felt so intimate, it was almost impossible to bear and soon, they were coming together, letting out a string of curses and moans.

Absolutely exhausted and drained, he collapsed against the tub with her on top of him, breathing heavily.

"That was amazing," she stated, chuckling drowsily.

"Indeed," he agreed. "We should get out of the water though."

"You're right," she said and started to get up, reaching for the fluffy towels, closely followed by Elijah. He wrapped the towel around her, then, with her still pressed against her, he put one around his hips. She felt too drowsy to move, so Elijah picked her up as if she weighted nothing, and carried her to the bed. He pulled the towel off of her before pulling up the covers over them, and soon they were drifting into a blissful sleep.


End file.
